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A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



What is fairer than a Rose? 
What is sweeter? 

George Herbert. 




A Rose Arch. 



BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



HOW TO GROW AND SHOW THEM 



P BY 

S/JREYNOLDS HOLE 



ESTER, 



DEAN OF ROCttESTERj AUTHOR 'a BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN, ETC. 

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3 

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/ ^'^ trs ^'^^^ Illustrations 



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A . * 



FIFTEENTH EDITION: REVISED 




EDWARD ARNOLD 

LONDON NEW YORK 

37 BEDFORD STREET 70 FIFTH AVENUE 

1896 



A U rights feserved 



• H73 



I DEDICATE MY BOOK TO 



MY WIFE 

BECAUSE 

there's a rose looking in at the window 

in every condition of life — 
in days of content and enjoyment, 

in hours with bitterness rife, 

where'er THERE 's THE SMILE OF A TRUE WIFE, 

AS BRIGHT AS A BEAM FROM ABOVE, 
'tis THE ROSE LOOKING IN AT THE WINDOW, 

AND FILLING THE DWELLING WITH LOVE, 

From Poe??ts by P. M, James. 



PREFACE 



I AM thankful to know, in my old age, that I have 
been privileged to promote that love of a garden 
which never fails to make our lives more happy ; 
and I have earnestly endeavoured to attest my 
gratitude by such amendments and additions to 
my little Book on the Rose as will, I hope, increase 
its persuasive and instructive influence. 

The most important of these additions — being a 
help of transcendent value to the amateur — is A 
List of the best Exhibition and Garden Roses, com- 
piled by the most accomplished Rosarians of our 
day, and included in this volume by the kind per- 
mission of the National Rose Society. The names 
of Roses, which have been proved to be worthy 
of insertion in this catalogue, since its publication 



viii PREFACE 

in 1893, have been added by my friend Mr. Ben- 
jamin Cant, of Colchester, the most successful of 
our Exhibitors. 

A charming pen-and-ink sketch sent to me by 
John Leech, in a letter written at the time of the 
First National Rose Show, will be admired by all. 

S. REYNOLDS HOLE. 



The Deanery, 

Rochester, 1896. 



CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. CAUSES OF FAILURE, ..... I 
II. CAUSES OF SUCCESS, . . . . . 12 

III. OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY, .... 34 

IV. POSITION, ...... 53 

V. SOILS, . . . . . . .65 

VI. MANURES, . . . . . .82 

VII. ARRANGEMENT, ...... IO3 

VIII. SELECTION, ...... 121 

IX. SELECTION (continued), . . . . .144 

X. GARDEN ROSES, . . . . . . 157 

XI. GARDEN ROSES (continued), . . . .174 

XII. CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS, . . . . 185 

XIII. ROSES FOR EXHIBITION, . . . .207 

XIV. HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE, .... 225 
XV. AT A ROSE-SHOW, ..... 248 

XVI. MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTHS, . . . 268 

APPENDIX : A select list of exhibition and 

GARDEN ROSES, ..... 283 

INDEX, ...... 297 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE CHALLENGE OF VENUS TO FLORA {Sketch by [ohu 

Leech), ..... 7"<? face page i 

A BOWER OF ROSES, . . . . ,, l8 

ROSE HEDGE IN THE DEANERY GARDENS, ROCHESTER, 58 

MARECHAL NIEL AT THE VILLA ZIRIO, SAN REMO, 112 

AYRSHIRE ROSES AT KEW, . . . j> »> I38 

A ROSE ARCH, ..... j, I52 

there's a rose LOOKING IN AT THE WINDOW, ,, 178 

A CLIMBING ROSE, .... >, IQO 

TEA ROSES AT FRASCATE, . . . 244 




CHAPTER I 

CAUSES OF FAILURE 

He who would have beautiful Roses in his garden 
must have beautiful Roses in his heart. He must 
love them well and always. To win, he must woo, 
as Jacob wooed Laban's daughter, though drought 
and frost consume. He must have not only the 
glowing admiration, the enthusiasm, and the passion, 
but the tenderness, the thoughtfulness, the reverence, 
the watchfulness of love. With no ephemeral caprice, 
like the fair young knight's, who loves and who rides 
away when his sudden fire is gone from the cold 
white ashes, the cavalier of the Rose has semper fidelis 
upon his crest and shield. He is loyal and devoted 
ever, in storm-fraught or in sunny days ; not only 
the first upon a summer's morning to gaze admir- 
ingly on glowing charms, but the first, when leaves 
fall and winds are chill, to protect against cruel 

frost. As with smitten bachelor or steadfast mate 

A 



2 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

the lady of his love is lovely ever, so to the true 
Rose-grower must the Rose-tree be always a thing 
of beauty. To others, when its flowers have faded, 
it may be worthless as a hedgerow thorn : to him, 
in every phase, it is precious. I am no more the 
Rose, it says, but cherish me, for we have dwelt 
together ; and the glory which has been, and the 
glory which shall be, never fade from his heart. 

Is it rare or frequent, this fond and complete 
affection? Go to one of our great exhibitions, and 
you must surely bring the conviction home, that 
true love, seen seldom in the outer world, may be 
always found ^ among the Roses.' From all grades 
and epochs of life, what vows of constancy, what 
fervid words ! * Sir Thomas and I are positively 
going to ruin ourselves with a new Rosarium.' ^ As 
soon as I get home,' says a country rector, ' I shall 
plant an acre of my glebe with Roses.' There you 
may see a Royal Duchess so surprised out of her 
normal calmness, that she raises two pale pink 
gloves in an ecstasy of surprise, and murmurs, ^ Oh, 
how lovely ! ' over Marechal Niel. There a Cabinet 
Minister stands tiptoe to catch a glimpse of his 
brother senator, Vaisse, and wishes he had a neck 
as long as Cicero's. Obstructing his view with her 
ample form and bountiful bonnet, our old friend 
Mrs. Brownj who has just had 'one drop of the 



CAUSES OF FAILURE 3 

least as is,' informs the public that she ' knows for 
facts that Mr. Turner of Slough has a dead horse 
under every Rose-tree, and Pauls & Sons has hun- 
dreds of young men with gig-umbrellas standing 
over their Roses when it rains heavy/ Mrs. Brown 
is delighted, like all around, and ^ means to tell 
Brown, as soon as ever she sets down in her own 
parlour, that Marshal Need all over the house, and 
Catherine Mermaid and Merry Bowman^ round the 
back door, grow she must and will. But goodness 
me ! ' she suddenly exclaims, * what a mess o' them 
reporters ! ' No, my dear madam, they are not 
reporters — only spectators, putting down in their 
note-books the names of Roses, with an expression 
of eager interest which says, I must have that 
flower or die. 

Every year this enthusiasm increases. It is not 
easy to collect reliable statistics : some who might 
furnish them, if they would, shut their mouths 
closely ; some open them so widely as to justify the 
amusing sarcasm of a reverend and roseate brother, 
* When they count their trees, they include the aphis/ 
Suffice it to say, that where Roses were grown twenty 
years ago by the dozen they are grown by the thou- 
sand, and where by the thousand now by the acre. 

But now comes a most important question,— Have 

^ Catherine Mermet and Marie Baumann, 



4 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

we beautiful Roses in proportion to this great 
multiplication of Rose-trees? The printer will 
oblige me by selecting a brace of his biggest and 
blackest capitals, with which I may reply emphati- 
cally, NO ! It is indeed, at first sight, a marvel 
and perplexity, that while the love of Roses is 
professed so generally — while the demand for Rose- 
trees has increased so extensively, and the flower 
itself has every year disclosed some new and pro- 
gressive charm — Roses should be so rarely seen in 
their full and perfect beauty. Queen Rosa, in 
common with other potentates, has greatly enlarged 
her armies, but her most illustrious heroes are, with 
few exceptions, veterans, or the sons of veterans, 
and names, which were famous when, in 1858, w^e 
commenced the second series of the ^ Wars of 
the Roses,' such as Rivers and Paul, Cant, Turner, 
Prince, and Veitch, are still familiar in our mouths 
as household words. Though some of her greatest 
generals have left us, as full of years as honours, 
including my Past-Master,^ Mr. Rivers of Sawbridge- 
worth, who did more than any other man to evoke 
and to educate a love of the Rose, Mr. Charles 
Turner of Slough, and Mr. Prince of Oxford, in all 

1 I have a copy of the last edition of his * Rose Amateurs' Guide,* 
in which he wrote, * Once your master, now your pupil ; ' but he had 
forgotten more than I ever knew. 



CAUSES OF FAILURE 5 

these cases there has been an entail and inheritance 
of talent and success. And though the same can- 
not be said of those amateur exhibitors, of those 
victorious knights, who tilt no more in our tourna- 
ments, such as Hedge and Pochin, Baker and Hall, 
that they are succeeded by their heirs and assigns, 
some of those who were coeval with them still 
compete, and it is long since the conquerors in this 
brigade of the Royal Army first won their spurs. 
Nevertheless there has been no declension, but rather 
an annual development, owing to the introduction of 
new varieties, in the beauty of our exhibitions ; and 
we must pass from the public Rose-show to the 
private Rose-garden to see in its saddest phase the 
difference between what is and what ought to be — 
the feeble harvest of good Roses from the broad 
acres of good Rose-trees. These collections remind 
us of Martial's description of his works, ^ Sunt bona, 
sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura.' We can 
hardly say of them, as an Edinburgh Reviewer (was 
it Sydney Smith ?) of a volume of sermons, criticised 
in the first number of that work, * Their character- 
istic is decent debility.' As a rule, the amateur 
Rosarian has made about as much progress as 
George HI. with his fiddle. After two years* 
tuition, the King asked his tutor, Viotti, what he 
thought of his pupil : ' Sire,' replied the professor, 



6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

^ there are three classes of vioHnists ; those who 
cannot play at all, those who play badly, and those 
who play well. Your Majesty is now commencing to 
enter upon the second of these classes.' There is 
not a garden nowadays of any pretension, which has 
not its collection of Roses, and yet there is not one 
garden in twenty where the flower is realised in its 
beauty. I have scarcely known at times whether 
to laugh or weep, when I have been conducted with 
a triumphal air by the proprietor to one of those 
dismal slaughter-houses which he calls his Rosary. 
The collection is surrounded by a few miserable 
climbers, justly gibbeted on poles or hung in rusty 
chains, and consists of lanky standards, all legs 
and no head, after the manner of giants, or of 
stunted Mwarfs,' admirably named, and ugly as 
Quilp ; the only sign of health and vigour being 
the abundant growth of the Manetti stock, which 
has smothered years ago the small baby committed 
to its care, but is still supposed to be the child 
itself, and is carefully pruned year after year 
in expectation of a glow of beauty. There is 
no beauty, and there never will be, for the florist ; 
but to the entomologist what a happy, peaceful 
home ! There can be no museum in all the 
world so exquisitely complete in caterpillars, or so 
rich with all manner of flies. What cosy chambers 



CAUSES OF FAILURE 7 

they make for themselves, what spacious nurseries 
for their delightful offspring, in the cracks and the 
cankers, the broken bark, the moss, and the lichen, of 
those ancient standard trees ! For me there is no 
solace in these charms. I stand sorrowful and silent, 
like Marius among the ruins, until my companion 
wishes to know whether I can tell him why that 
wretched Charles Lefebvre behaves so disgrace- 
fully in his garden? On reflection, perhaps I 
can. Charles Lefebvre is placed, like Tityrus, ^ sub 
tegmine fagi,' under the drip and shadow of a noble 
beech-tree, whose boughs above and roots beneath 
effectually keep all nourishment from him. And do 
I know why Charles Lawson, Blairii 2, and Persian 
Yellow never have a flower upon them? Simply 
because they are pruned always, as no man with 
seeing eyes could prune them twice, so closely that 
they make nothing but wood. The single standards, 
again, are grassed up to the very Brier, except where 
a circular space is left for ^just a few bedding-out 
things ' — leeches draining the life-blood of the Rose. 
It is Mrs. Hemans, I think, who sings, — 

* Around the red Rose the convolvulus climbing;' 

and it sounds sweetly pretty, and would be the 
loveliest arrangement possible, only that, unfortu- 
nately, it is death to the Rose — death to that queen 



8 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



who brooks no rival near, much less upon, her throne. 
Look, too, at those vagabond suckers clustering like 
Jewish money-lenders or Christian bookmakers round 
a young nobleman, and stealing the sap away. Well 
may that miserable specimen be called a ' Souvenir 
de Comte Cavour,' for it is dying from depletion, like 
its illustrious namesake. The earth is set and 
sodden ; no spade nor hoe has been there. As for 
manure, a feeling of profound melancholy comes over 
us, as over Mr. Richard Swiveller when he discovered 
that the Marchioness had passed her youthful days in 
ignorance of the taste of beer. We know that they 
have never seen it, and yet they are expected to 
bloom profusely ; and when they are covered, not 
with Roses, but grubs, the nurseryman, or the 
gardener, or the soil is blamed. Then there is dole 
in Astolat, and a wailing cry over dead Adonis. ^ Is 
it not sad that we cannot grow Roses ? We have 
spared no trouble, no expense, and we do so dote 
on them ! ' 

The last time I heard a howl of this kind I felt 
myself insulted as a lover of the Rose and of truth; 
and instead of yelping in concert, as I was expected 
to do, I snarled surlily, ^ You have taken no trouble 
which deserves the name ; and as to expense, permit 
me to observe that your fifty Rose-trees did not cost 
you a fifth of the sum which you paid for your 



CAUSES OF FAILURE 9 

sealskin jacket. You don't deserve beautiful Roses, 
and you won't have any until you love them more.' 
If I am accused of discourtesy to the fair sex (she 
was not very fair, my reader), I can only plead that I 
have been far more explicit with the male specimen 
of pseudo-Rosist. ^ I say, old fellow,' remarked to 
me a friend as we rode together in the Row, and 
with a tone which, though it pretended a cheery 
indifference, was fraught with rebuke and anger, 
^ those Rose-trees, which you recommended me to 
get, turned out a regular do. Cost a hatful of money 
— precious near a tenner^ if not all out — and, by Jove, 
sir ! our curate at the county flower-show came and 
licked them all into fits ! ' * Robert,' I responded (I 
was too indignant to address him with Bob, as usual), 
^ I never in my life recommended a person of your 
profound ignorance to have anything to do with 
Roses. You asked me to give you a list of the best, 
and I did so reluctantly, knowing that you had 
neither the taste nor the energy to do them justice. 
As to the outlay, the animal on which you have 
recklessly placed yourself, and whose hocks are a 
disgrace to this park, cost you, I know, more than 
eighty guineas ; and for a tithe of that sum, without 
further supervision or effort, you expect a beautiful 
Rose-garden. I rejoice to hear that the curate beat 
you, just as that Eton boy on his nimble pony is 



lo A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

out-trotting at this moment your expensive but 
tardy steed/ 

Not a soupgon of sympathy can I ever feel for the 
discomfiture of those Rose-growers who trust in 
riches. They see lovely blooms at the Rose shows — 
selected, probably, from fifty thousand trees, and the 
results of excellent culture, untiring vigilance, and 
care — and they say, We will have these Roses for our 
own forthwith, and in abundance. They have only 
to put down the names, give an order, and sign a 
cheque, to buy as they buy chairs and tables. ' They 
go home and tell their gardener that they have 
ordered a most splendid collection of Rose-trees, and 
that they quite expect him next summer to have the 
best display in the county. From my heart I pity 
that gardener. They might as well have brought 
him Bob's hack, and told him that if he could not 
win the Derby and the St. Leger with him, they 
really must find somebody who could. He is not 
even allowed to choose a situation. The tall ones 
are to be planted on each side of the broad walk, and 
the little ones opposite the boudoir window. The 
broad walk may be as bleak as a common, or, under 
the shade of melancholy boughs, as dank as a 
mausoleum ; and the dear little bed opposite the 
boudoir never sees the sun until mid-day, when it is 
grilled for three mortal hours, and then given back to 



CAUSES OF FAILURE 



II 



gloom. So there the poor Rose-trees stand — through 
the winter, ludibrium ventis, or without any air at all, 
and in the spring a rialto, rendezvoi^s^ common-room, 
and tap for all the riff-raff of the insect world — an 
infirmary for all the diseases which the neglected 
Rose is heir to. Some few, perhaps, may brave all 
and bloom ; but they no more resemble the glorious 
flowers which my lady saw at the Crystal Palace 
than my little boy's toy railway train resembles the 
Scotch express. 

In my next chapter I will tell what may be done 
in a very small garden, by a ver)' poor man who 
really loves the Rose. 



CHAPTER II 

CAUSES OF SUCCESS 

From the lukewarm to the earnest, from sloth to 
zeal, from failure to success. Some years ago, one 
cold, slate - coloured morning towards the end of 
March ('hunch-weather,' as I have heard it termed 
in Lincolnshire, because, I suppose, a sense of starva- 
tion has a tendency to set one's back up), I received 
a note from a Nottingham mechanic, inviting me to 
assist in a judicial capacity at an exhibition of Roses, 
which was to be given by working-men, and held on 
Easter Monday. Not having at the time a Rose in 
my possession, although, to my shame be it spoken, 
I had ample room and appliances, and knowing, 
moreover, that all the conservatories of the neigh- 
bourhood were in a like destitute and disgraceful 
condition, it never occurred to me that the tiny glass 
houses, which I had seen so often on the hills near 
Nottingham, could be more honourably utilised or 
worthily occupied, and I threw down the letter on 
my first impulse as a hoax, and a very poor one. 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 



13 



Hoaxes, I have observed, are not what they used to 
be when I took an active part in them; and, more- 
over, the proximity of the ist of April made me 
more than ordinarily suspicious. Nevertheless, upon 
a second inspection, I was so impressed by a look and 
tone of genuine reality that I wrote ultimately to 
the address indicated, asking somewhat sarcastically 
and incredulously, as being a shrewd, superior person 
not to be sold at any figure, what sorts of Roses were 
so kind as to bloom during the month of April at 
Nottingham, and nowhere else. By return of post I 
was informed, with much more courtesy than I had 
any claim to, that the Roses in question were grown 
under glass — where and how^ the growers would be 
delighted to show me, if I would oblige them by my 
company. 

On Easter Monday, in due course, upon a raw 
and gusty day, when spring and winter, sleet and 
sunshine, were fighting round after round, like Spring 
and Langan,^ for victory, — winter now retreating, 
sobbing and puffing, to his corner, and now coming 
on in force, black with rage, resistless, hitting out 
hard and straight, until the sun's eye had a sickly 

^ I witnessed their great fight for the championship, in a show of 
mechanical figures at Newark, at that early period of childhood when 
such things seem to us realities ; and I was astounded at the courage 
and condition of Langan, who was knocked into the air about four 
feet from the ground at the end of every round, and invariably came 
down on his head ! 



14 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

glare, and the cold world trembled in his cruel hug 
and grip, — I went to Nottingham. Again, as the 
hail beat upon the window of the rail conveyance, 
and I sat dithering in the eastern wind, which whistled 
its contempt of my rug and foot-warmer, a horrible 
dread of imposition vexed my unquiet soul. Nor 
were my silly suspicions expelled until my hansom 
from the station stopped before the General Cathcart 
Inn, and the landlord met me, with a smile on his 
face and with a Senateur Vaisse in his coat, which 
glowed amid the gloom like the red light' on a 
midnight train, and (in my eyes, at any rate) made 
summer of that dark, ungenial day. Within his 
portals I found a crowd of other exhibitors, some 
with Roses in their coats like himself, and some 
without, for the valid reason that they were there in 
their shirt-sleeves, with no coats at all, just as you 
would see them at their daily work, and some of 
them only spared from it to cut and stage their 
flowers. These welcomed me with outstretched hands, 
and seemed amused when, on their apologising for 
their soiled appearance, I assured them of my vivid 
affection for all kinds of floricultural dirt, and that 
I counted no man worthy of the name of gardener 
whose skin was always white and clean. No : a rich, 
glowing, gipsy brown is that one touch from Nature's 
paint-brush which makes the whole world of florists 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 15 

kin, which is seen beneath the battered billycock and 
the hat of shining silk, and which, whether the wearer 
gets his garments from Poole or pawnbroker, whether 
he be clad in double-milled or fustian, whether he 
own a castle or rent an attic, unites all of us, heart 
and hand. 

' Who shall judge a man from manners ? 

Who shall know him from his dress ? 
Paupers may be fit for princes, 

Princes fit for something less. 
Crumpled shirt and dirty jacket 

May beclothe the golden ore 
Of the humblest thoughts and feelings — 

What can satin vest do more ? ^ 

* The Roses were ready : would I go up-stairs ? ' 
And up-stairs accordingly, with my co-censor, a 
nurseryman and skilled Rosarian of the neighbour- 
hood, I mounted, and entered one of those long, 
narrow rooms in which market-ordinaries are wont 
to be held, wherein the Oddfellows, the Foresters, 
and the Druids meet in mysterious conclave, and 
where, during the race week and the pleasure-fair, 
there is a sound of the viol and the mazy dance. 
What a contrast now ! The chamber, whose normal 
purpose was clamour and chorus from crowded men, 
we found empty, hushed, and still ; the air, on other 
public occasions hot with cooked meats and steaming 
tumblers, heavy with the smoke and smell of tobacco, 



i6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

was cool and perfumed ; and the table — you could 
not see its homely surface of plain deal, stained with 
spilt drinks, scorched by the expiring cigar, dinted 
by knife-handles and by nut-crackers, when oration 
or ballad ceased ; for it was covered from end to end 
with beautiful and fragrant Roses ! There v/as nothing 
to remind of coarser pleasures or of the tavern here, 
except, by the way, the bottles, which, once filled with 
the creamy stout and with the fizzing beer of ginger, 
now, like converted drunkards, were teetotally devoted 
to pure water, and in that water stood the Ros^, 

A prettier sight, a more complete surprise of 
beauty, could not have presented itself on that cold 
and cloudy morning ; and in no royal palace, no 
museum of rarities, no mart of gems, was there that 
day in all the world a table so fairly dight. As if to 
heighten our enjoyment of the scene, and just as we 
came upon it, the day darkened without, and the 
sleet beat against the windows as though enraged by 
this sudden invasion of Flora, and determined to fire 
a volley on her ranks; but her soldiers only smiiled 
more brightly at the idle, harmless cannonade, just as 
the brave general on his sign outside cared no more 
for the rattling hail than, in the flesh, a few years 
before, he had cared for Crimean snow. 

Nor was our first enjoyment diminished, when, 
from a general survey of this charming contrast, we 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 17 

proceeded in our judicial ofifice to a minute and 
careful scrutiny. I have never seen better specimens 
of cut Roses, grown under glass, than those which 
were exhibited by these working-men. Their Tea- 
Roses — Adam, Devoniensis, Madame Willermorz, 
and Souvenir d'un Ami especially — were shown in 
their most exquisite beauty ; and I do not hesitate to 
say that the best Marechal Niel which I have ever 
seen was shown in a jug at Nottingham ! Many of 
the Hybrid Perpetual varieties appeared in their 
integrity — a difficult achievement when days are 
short and dull. Of course, in an exhibition of this 
kind, with difficulties to oppose which few dare to 
encounter and very few overcome, these poor florists 
must include among their masterpieces many speci- 
mens of medium merit, and some failures. Among 
the latter I cannot forget a small and sickly exposi- 
tion of Paul Ricaut, who, by some happy coincidence, 
which warmed my whole body with laughter, was 
appropriately placed in a large medicine-bottle, with 
a label requesting that the wretched invalid might be 
well rubbed every night and morning. Poor Paul ! a 
gentle touch would have sent him to pot-pourri! 

When the prizes were awarded we left the show- 
room, grave and important as two examiners coming 
out of the schools at Oxford ; and when the under- 
graduates — I mean the stockingers — had rushed to 

B 



i8 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

see who had taken honours and who were plucked, I 
went with some of them to inspect their gardens. 
These are tiny allotments on sunny slopes, just out 
of the town of Nottingham,^ separated by hedges 
or boards, in size about three to the rood — such an 
extent as a country squire in Lilliput might be 
expected to devote to horticulture. And yet it was 
delightful to see how much might be, and was, done 
in one of these pleasant plots. There was something 
for every season : — 

* The daughters of the year, 
One after one, through that still garden pass, 
Each garlanded with her peculiar flower.' 

There, to cheer the ungenial days of winter, were 

the Christmas Rose, the Aconite, the Laurestinus, 

the Golden Holly, the Cheimonanthus fragrans on 

its snug bit of southern wall, w^ith the large yellow 

Jasmine near, and the winter Violets beneath. There, 

to follow in the spring, the Mezereon, the Erica, 

the Berberis, the Snowdrop, Hepatica, Polyanthus, 

Crocus, and Tulip ; after these the Lilac, Syringa, 

Laburnum, Ribes, Wistaria, and then the Royal 

^ No town in England displays the gardening spirit more manifestly 
than 'old Nottingham.' Independently of gardens attached to 
residences, there are, it is said, nearly 10,000 allotments within a 
short distance of the town ; and as many of these are divided, and in 
some cases subdivided, it is not too much to affirm that from 20,000 to 
30,000 of the inhabitants, or nearly one-half, take an active interest in 
the garden. And where will you see such Roses as are produced upon 
the Hunger Hills by these amateurs — such cabbage and lettuce, 
rhubarb and celery ? 



A Bovver of Roses, 



\ 
I 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 19 

Rose. The straight standards, cleanly and closely 
pruned, firmly staked and liberally mulched (blessed 
be the boy with donkey and cart, who goes to a 
cheap market, and sells accordingly !) ; the Manetti 
Dwarfs, full of vigorous wood — not the stock, but 
the scion this time ; the climbers tastefully trained 
over * the bower of Roses by,' dare I say, * Bendigo's 
stream,* seeing that the ex-champion was oft an 
angler in the waters of the Trent, hard by ? — all 
these acknowledge the royal supremacy and the 
loyal love of our second Queen. And think what 
a refreshment for these working-men on a summer's 
eve, when their hot work is done, or on silent 
Sabbaths, when there is no work to do, 'to sit 
'mong the Roses and hear the birds sing' — songs 
of praise, and comfort, and hope ! 

Meanwhile they have a foretaste of this gladness 
in the glass-houses which I went to see. Houses I 
why, a full-sized giant would have taken them up 
like a hand-glass ; and even I, but a small office- 
boy in connection with that great business,^ was 

^ One of the first of many delicious stories which it was my 
privilege to hear Mr Thackeray tell, was, that once upon a time he 
and Mr. Higgins ('Jacob Omnium ') went to see a Giant, and that the 
man at the door inquired whether they were in the business, because, 
if so, no charge would be made for admission. Mr. Thackeray 
was 6 feet 4 inches, and Mr. Higgins not less than 6 feet 6 inches 
in height. As the Eton boy, describing Windsor fair, remarked in 
his Latin verse — 

* Gigantesque duo, super honore meo,* 



20 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

unable in most of them to stand upright, and into 
some to enter at all. That 'bit o' glass' had been, 
nevertheless, as much a dream, and hope, and happi- 
ness to its owner as the Crystal Palace to Paxton. 
How often the very thought and expectation of it 
had soothed and relieved his weariness as he worked 
at his stocking-frame ! How the reality had refreshed, 
refined him, in his brief, bright holiday hours ! There 
is a timber-yard on the left as you leave Nottingham, 
travelling upon the Derby road, and therein the 
framework of a neat miniature greenhouse, tHus 
described upon a board affixed to it : — 



B. WHEELER'S 
Five- Guinea Greenhouse, 
Glazed, Painted, and Fixed, 
Complete. 



I grieve, when I pass, to think how many a true 
but poor florist has stopped to read, and sigh. I 
rejoice, when I pass, to believe that many a poor 
but brave florist has stopped to read, and has 
gone home to save — has come, and seen, and 
conquered. 

A few of the structures, which I was invited to 
inspect, were of fair dimensions ; here a carpenter, 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 21 

and here a bricklayer, and there a glazier, had made 
his handicraft subserve his amusement; but the 
accommodation, as a rule, was meagre, and I could 
hardly believe that the grand Roses which we had 
just left could have come, like some village beauty 
out of her cottage dwelling, from such mean and 
lowly homes. But there were the plants, and there 
were the proprietors, showing me proudly the stems 
from which such and such favourites were cut, and 
pointing to various healthy and handsome rose-buds, 
which, though belonging to junior branches of the 
family, gave promise of equal beauty. 

How was it done ? De V abondance du cceur — 
from a true love of the Rose. ' It's more nor a mile 
from my house to my garden,' said one of these 
enthusiasts to me, * but Fve been here for weeks, 
in the winter months, every morning before I went 
to my work, and every evening when I came from 
it, and not seldom at noon as well, here and back, 
and my dinner to get, between twelve and one 
o'clock.' * How do you afford,' I inquired from 
another, * to buy these new and expensive varieties 'i ' 
and I would that every employer, that every one 
who cares for the labouring poor, would remember 
the answer, reflect, and act on it. * I'll tell you,' 
he said, ' hov/ I managed to buy 'em — by keeping 
away from the beershops 1 ' 



22 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

From a lady who lives near Nottingham, and 
goes much among the poorer classes, I heard a far 
more striking instance of this floral devotion than 
from the florists themselves. While conversing with 
the wife of a mechanic during the coldest period 
of a recent winter, she observed that the parental 
bed appeared to be scantily and insufficiently 
clothed, and she inquired if there were no more 
blankets in the house. ' Yes, ma am, we've another,' 

replied the housewife ; ' but ' and here she 

paused. 

' But what } ' said the lady. 

' It is not at home, ma'am.' 

' Surely, surely it's not in pawn ? ' 

'Oh dear no, ma'am; Tom has only just took it 
— ^just took it ' 

' Well, Bessie, took it where } ' 

' Please, ma'am, he took it — took it — took it to 
keep the frost out of the greenhouse ; and please, 
ma'am, we don't want it, and we're quite hot in 
bed.' 

They ought to be presented with a golden 
warming-pan, set with brilliants, and filled with 
fifty-pound Bank of England notes. 

I took my leave of the brotherhood at last, 
delighted with their gardens and delighted with 
them, but not much delighted with myself. I 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 23 

seemed to have been presiding as Lord Chief- 
Justice in a court, wherein, had merit regulated the 
appointments, I should most probably have dis- 
charged the duties of usher. I had been enthroned 
as Grand Master of a Rosicrucian Lodge, when 
I ought to have been standing at the door as 
tyler; and as I carried away a glorious bouquet 
of Roses, with their ' best respects to the Missus,' 
I felt ashamed to think how little I had done, and 
how much more such men would do, with my 
larger leisure and more abundant means. But when 
I reached the station and entered my carriage, I 
was roused from my reverie by a loud and prolonged 
'OhT which greeted me from five of my acquaint- 
ances, as though I had been an asteroid rocket 
which had just burst, and the Roses were my 
coruscant stars : and I w^as beginning to regain my 
self-complacency, and to find solace in the remark 
of one of my neighbours, who, I knew, had glass 
by the acre, and gardeners in troops, that ' they 
were the first Roses he had seen this year,* when 
I was again discomfited by the insolent behaviour 
of the company — on this wise. To an inquiry from 
what garden the Roses came, I responded, in all 
truthfulness, ' Chiefly from a bricklayer's.' Where- 
upon an expressive sneer of unbelief disfigured each 
stolid countenance; and a solemn silence ensued, 



24 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

which said, nevertheless, as plainly as though it 
were shouted, ' We don't see any wit in lies/ I 
collapsed at once into my corner, sulking behind 
my big bouquet, and looking, I fear, very like the 
Beast when he first showed himself among the 
Roses to Beauty ; nor did I quite regain my 
equanimity until, reaching home, I had written 
and posted an order for an assortment of Roses 
in pots. 

These Nottingham florists are equally successful 
in the outdoor culture of the Rose. On several 
occasions I have attended, as one of the judges, the 
annual exhibition of ' The St. Ann's Amateur Floral 
and Horticultural Society,' at Nottingham. The 
Society consists of artisans, occupying garden allot- 
ments in the suburbs of Nottingham, and justly 
prides itself on having developed a taste for garden- 
ing among the working-classes. Nearly eighty 
prizes for Roses alone, varying in value from two 
guineas to two shillings, are offered, and closely 
fought for. The Roses are excellent, the interest 
and excitement of the exhibitors intense. The 
winners (so I was told by their president, Mr. 
Knight, well chosen to preside over working-men, 
for he is ever untiring and ubiquitous) are twist- 
hands, shoemakers, tailors, mechanics, etc. He told 
me, con arnore^ of their devotion to their gardens 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 25 

and their glass: how they carry their bags of coal 
through the deep snow, and how, early in the 
morning and late at eventide, they rob themselves 
of rest for the Rose. 

I rejoice to see and hear. I have always believed 
that the happiness of mankind may be increased 
by encouraging that love of a garden, that love of 
the beautiful, which is innate in us all. Get a man 
out of the dram and beer shops into the fresh pure 
air, interest him in the marvellous works of his 
God, instead of in the deformities of vice, give him 
an occupation which will add to his health and 
the comforts of his family, instead of destroying 
both, then build Revealed upon Natural Religion, 
and hope to see him a Christian. 

In one of the most genial and gratifying notices 
with which this book has been favoured, the Satur- 
day Reviewer gladdened my heart, confirmed my 
belief, and stimulated my endeavours, by endorsing 
these my views on the subject. From this love of 
flowers, he writes, ' may be learned the road, diffi- 
cult to find in these days, to the inner heart of the 
lower classes — the key to tastes, dearer to them 
than beer-swilling — the secret, which, if rightly 
applied by those who bear spiritual rule over the 
working-man, may do much directly to civilise, and 
indirectly to Christianise him.' 



26 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



There are difficulties, of course, in this as in all 
good works. There are difficulties with regard to 
cottage-gardening, even in those villages where 
priest and squire co-operate heartily, and these 
difficulties are multiplied where men are thick upon 
the ground, and where at present little interest is 
taken in the matter, either by the clergy or the 
rich. These difficulties come from the temptations 
incidental to the annual show ; and the annual 
show is, according to my experience, a necessity. 
Emulation is the stimulus, with which we cannot 
dispense. My lord won't ride his best hunter over 
a nasty brook, when nobody is there to see ; and 
Bill Smith won't dig and delve after work-hours, 
if no one is to admire his big potatoes. Large 
and lovely is the rhubarb of Jones, but never so 
large, never so lovely, as when it rests beside the 
rhubarb of Robinson, having won the premier prize. 
Alas ! to win premier prizes men are tempted to 
be dishonest, and they fall. * If you please, sir, 
Bob Filch went a-cadging miles and miles for them 
cut flowers as won last show.' ' Lor' bless your 
reverence, I knows for a fact that Jim A gave Jack 
B one-and-nine for that Senateur Vaisse in his six.' 
And his reverence, moreover, knows for fact, that 
Roses have not only been begged and bought, but 
stolen, just before a show. His reverence could name 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 27 

some of his Nottingham friends who have slept in 
their greenhouses, fearing a raid, for nights before 
the contest came. This very Society of St. Ann 
has a sub-committee to inspect the gardens of 
exhibitors, and to prevent imposture. Discouraging 
facts ! But so it is discouraging to note certain 
infirmities of slothfulness, selfishness, and ignorance 
in our daily life ; and when we have made ourselves 
just such Christian gentlemen as we ought to be, 
let us be severe with our fellow-men. In the interim, 
suppose we try the experiment of winning them by 
kindness and love. Suppose we try to convince 
them that a public-house is not the only place for 
a flower-show, that tents and schoolrooms are avail- 
able for the purpose, and that it is possible to spend 
a happy day without degradation at night, and sick- 
ness to follow in the morning. 

It is high time, however, to leave this digression, 
and to repeat, that whatever may be the infirmities 
of these poor florists, they are eminently successful 
in the culture of flowers ; and indeed it would be 
easy to multiply proofs that in Rose-growing, as 
in everything else, earnestness and industry, born 
of love, 

* Di tutte le arti maestro e amore,' 

must achieve success. At a flower-show which took 
place annually at Oundle, and at which I frequently 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



acted as one of the judges/ a chief hero of former 
days was a Northamptonshire butcher, Thorneycroft 
of Floore. He told me that by rising early, some- 
times at 3 A.M., and by working late, he not only 
carried on an extensive trade, but found time to put 
up three glass-houses of his own handiwork ; and 
that, in addition to his plants, fruits, and vegetables, 
he had in cultivation several thousand Rose-trees, 
most of which he had budded, and all of which he had 
pruned and cared for likewise with his own hands. 
From his houses he showed beautiful seedling 
Gloxinias, which won first prizes and special com- 
mendations ; obtained prizes for specimen plants of 
recent introduction, as well as for those of a more 
ordinary kind ; while from his Rose-garden he 
brought collections which often took first and 
second honours, and were always meritorious. 

Ascending some rungs of the social scala^ passing 
from the bluecoat school of Rosists to the black, 
we floral ecclesiastics may congratulate ourselves, 
thankfully and happily, upon our status in the world 
of Roses. And here again, how often will the poor 
curate, with something more than a good gardener s 

^ On one of these occasions some very pretty collections were shown, 
not only of wild-flowers, but of wild ferns and grasses. In three of 
the latter, exhibited by children of one family, I observed asparagus ; 
and upon my saying to the exhibitors that this was not contemplated by 
the schedule, my ignorance was at once enlightened, — 'Please, sir, it 
says ferns and grasses, and this is sparrow grass.' 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 29 

wages, and something less than a good gardener's 
house, show what earnest love can do ! Whenever 
I see at an exhibition a white tie behind a box of 
Roses, I know (although I may in days of youth- 
ful exuberance have irreverently exclaimed to my 
clerical friends, ^ Hollo, Butler! are you bringing 
breakfast ? ') — I know that, almost as a rule, bright 
gems shine within that case. And who but he can 
tell the refreshment, the rest, the peace, which he 
finds in his little garden, coming home from the 
sick and the sorrowful, and here reminded that for 
them and him there is an Eden, more beautiful 
than the first, a garden where summer shall never 
cease ! 

Here I would ask permission to digress briefly, 
that I may confirm a very interesting statement 
which was made after a florist dinner at Leicester^ 
by the editor of The Gardener, and received with 
hearty acclamations. He had been told, he said, 
by a Scotch clergyman, that in his visitations from 
house to house he had never met with an ungenial 
reception where he had seen a plant in the window. 
It was a promise of welcome ; it was a sign that 
there dwelt within a love and yearning for the 
beautiful ; it was an invitation for the sower to 
sow. What tender memories, solaces, and hopes 

^ During the Provincial Show of the Royal Horticultural Society. 



30 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

may be brought into darkened homes by the 

brightness and the sweetness of flowers ! 

* The weary woman stays her task, 

That perfume to inhale ; 
The pale-faced children pause to ask 
What breath is on the gale. 

' And none that breathe that sweetened air, 
But have a gentle thought ; 
A gleam of something good and fair 
Across the spirit brought,' 

Would that these inmates of alley and court, would 
that these weary men and women, with their pale- 
faced children, might breathe that sweetened air, 
and see that gleam more oft ! ^ 

All honour to the owners of park and pleasaunce 
who admit them therein, and to employers who 
give them holidays to go ! Well does our great 
poet plead, — 

' Why should not these great Sirs 
Give up their parks a dozen times a year, 
To let the people breathe ? ' 

Why should there not be great public gardens, and 
great public flower-shows, in or near all our towns ? 
When the Council of the Manchester Botanical 
Society, advised by their clever, energetic curator, 

^ A friend of mine, a lady, who is much among the poor in the 
east of London, took a bunch of primroses to a miserable attic, and 
placed it on the table. The woman, who occupied the room, gazed 
for a moment at the flowers, and then, overpowered by the memory 
of happier, purer days, she burst into tears ! 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 31 

Mr. Bruce Findlay, offered iJ'iooo in prizes at their 
June Show, men shook empty heads, and murmured 
' Madness/ What was the result ? The receipts 
one Whitsuntide exceeded sixteen hundred pounds; 
and of this, Eleven Hundred was paid by the working- 
classes in shillings ! 

And all honour to such men as George Peabody, 
the American merchant, who 'with more than 
princely munificence' (as the Queen of England 
wrote), * bestowed more than a million and a half 
of money to promote education and to relieve 
poverty, including, for the latter purpose, eighteen 
groups of commodious and healthful homes for 
the working-classes in various parts of the city of 
London. I was present at an exhibition of window 
plants, held in Dean's Yard, Westminster, and I 
noticed that a large proportion of the prizes were 
won by the tenants of ' Peabody's Buildings.' Life, 
vegetable or human, dwindles and collapses in 
polluted air ; and as the plant is defiled by dirt 
and devoured by vermin, so is the man enfeebled 
by disease and degraded by vice. How can you 
expect (asked Lord Derby, known as ' the Rupert of 
Debate ') those who live in an atmosphere which 
would kill an oak, to abstain from stimulants. And 
therefore there can be no truer philanthropists, no 
wiser statesmen, than those who would recover 



32 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

and maintain for the poor those precious gifts of 
pure air, pure light, and pure water, which God 
designs for us all. 

It is gratifying to notice an increase of practical 
effort in this benevolent endeavour, in the building 
of better homes, in the increase of allotments near 
to our cities and towns, and in the encouragement of 
cottage-gardening. 

I may mention here, that for some years I tried 
satisfactorily to promote among the children of my 
parish that love of flowers which we find in them 
all, not only by giving prizes for their collections 
of wild-flowers at our annual show, but by taking 
them walks on Sunday evenings, and helping them 
to collect and arrange their posies, teaching them 
names, habits, and uses, and showing them the 
coloured likenesses and the histories, which are 
provided in a cheap form by the Society for Pro- 
moting Christian Knowledge, and in other illustrated 
manuals. 

A happy result of these wanderings by the brook- 
side, in the valleys, and the woods, gladdened my 
heart and my eyes, when waiting for a train at 
one of our great Northern Stations, I met among 
those employed therein one of my old village pupils, 
and he invited me to visit his home. We came 
to the end of a long street, in which every dwelling 



CAUSES OF SUCCESS 33 

was of an uniform size and shape. * Now, sir/ 
asked my companion, 'can you tell which is my 
house ? ' ' Oh, yes, Joe,' I replied, ' that with the 
creeper, at the other end of the row/ 'AH right/ 
he said, ' I have always been fond of flowers since 
you took us boys among the primroses, and violets, 
and cowslips, the honeysuckles, and the roses, in 
Caunton lanes and fields/ 



CHAPTER III 



OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 

Having proved, as I hope, that there is no royal 
road, no golden key, to an excellent Rose-garden, 
but that a poor man, on the contrary, who lov&s 
the flower, may walk about in March with a Rose 
in his coat — while Dives, who only likes, may be 
Roseless under all his vitreous domes, — I will pro- 
ceed now to instruct those who, having this love, 
desire instruction, in the lessons which a long and 
happy experience has taught to me. 

And yet, before I commence my lecture, I would 
fain enlarge the number of disciples : I would 
multiply the competitors by exhibiting the prizes, 
and would so extol the charms of our Queen of 
Beauty, that all brave knights, gallantly armed, 
should leap upon their steeds for the lists. In 
more homely and modern metaphor, I would exhibit 
to him whom I propose to make a fisherman, his 
fish. I would take him, as it were, to the broad 
rivers, from which silvery salmon leap, or peep 

34 



OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 35 

with him stealthily through brookside bushes at 
the dark, still, 3-lb. trout. Then, when his eyes 
ghsten and his fingers itch for a rod, I would teach 
him how to throw and spin ; and would say to 
him, as old Izaak said, ' I am like to have a towardly 
scholar of you. I now see that with advice and 
practice you will make an angler in a short time. 
Have but a love ofity and Vll warrant you.' 

I will essay, therefore, while I enumerate and 
extol the special charms of the Rose, to convince 
all florists why, before I proceed to demonstrate 
how, they should admire and honour pre-eminently 
the Queen of Flowers. 

First of all, because she is Queen. There is no 
Fenian, no Nihilist, in her realm, but her monarchy 
is the most absolute, and her throne the most ancient 
and the most secure of all, because founded in her 
people's heart. Her supremacy has been acknow- 
ledged, like Truth itself, semper, ubique, ab omnibus — • 
always, everywhere, by all. 

I. Semper. — When, in sacred history, a chief 
prophet of the Older Covenant foretold the grace 
and glory which were to be revealed by the New 
— when Isaiah would select, and was inspired to 
select, the most beautiful image by which to tell 
mankind of their exodus from the Law to the 
Gospel, slavery to freedom, fear to love — these were 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



the words which came to him from heaven, *The 
wilderness shall blossom as a Rose.' In the Song 
of Songs the Church compares herself unto 'the 
Rose of Sharon ' ; and in the apocryphal scriptures 
the son of Sirach likens wisdom to a Rose-plant 
in Jericho, and holiness to a Rose growing by the 
brook of the field. And the Rose still blooms on 
that sacred soil, even in that garden of Gethsemane, 
where He, who gives joy and life to all, was sorrowful 
unto death.^ In our own, as in the older time, it 
is associated with religion, with acts and thoughts 
of holiness which should be fair and pure and 
fragrant as itself ; and at the Orphanage of Beyrout, 
the authoress of 'Cradle Lands' saw two hundred 
and fifty maidens receive their first communion with 
wreaths of white Roses on their heads.^ 

Passing from sacred to secular records, shall I 
take down my Greek Lexicons, my Scott and 
Liddell, Donnegan the fat and Hederic the slim, 
my Dictionaries, Indices, and Gradus ad Parnassum.'^ 
Shall I look out poSov and rosa, collect a few quota- 
tions, dress up a few incidents, and then try to 
convince my readers that I know every word which 
classic authors have written anent the Rose ? Shall 

1 'The old man, a Franciscan monk, gave me a Rose as a 
memorial of the garden.' — Bartlett's * Jerusalem Revisited,' p. 129. 

2 Syria, according to some writers, took its name from Suri, a 




OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 37 

I, having just discovered some sentence bearing on 
my theme, and having hardly translated it (lame 
and broken-winded is the Pegasus now, which once 
cantered in Oxford riding-schools and jumped with 
a mighty effort, and a wily tutor whipping behind, 
the statutory bars) — shall I proudly display my 
electro-plate, and commence magniloquent passages 
with — 'the educated reader will of course remember,' 
and ' every schoolboy knows ' ? — No ; I promised 
to wTite sans itude, and much more sans humbug 
also; and it will suffice to say, without dictionaries 
or high-falutenation, that the classical writers, from 
Homer to Horace, extol above all other flowers 
the Rose. To the fairest of their goddesses, to 
Venus, they dedicated this the fairest of their 
flowers ; and the highest praise which they could 
offer to beauty, was to assert its resemblance to the 
Rose. Aurora had rosy fingers ; I always thought 
of her at school, and envied her as of one who 
had been among the strawberries : and beautiful 
Helen, with whom the world was in love (there 
must generally have been between forty and fifty 
distinguished princes, with Ulysses, who ought to 
have known better, at their head, loafing about the 
mansion of Papa Tyndarus) — Helen, fair and frail, 
rosa inu7tdi non rosa munda^ had, we are told, 
cheeks like a Rose, though not perhaps a blush 



38 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

one. Other belles of the past had — so Anacreon, 
Theocritus, and the poets generally inform us — 
rosy arms, rosy necks, rosy feet, and — delicacy 
forbids me to translate poSoKoXwos and poSoirvyo^. 
' Burning Sappho ' — it would have been more 
gentlemanly, I think, if Byron had called her 
gushing — crowned the Rose, Queen of Flowers, 
being herself, according to Meleager, the Rose of 
Poesy ; and her readers crowned themselves with 
the Rose (one can't help wondering whether the 
nimble earwig ever ran down their Grecian noses), 
and vied with each other, at their banquets, €KTrXi]TTeiv 
Tovs fSpovvovsy to astonish the Browns, with Roses. 
There was a flower-market at Athens, as in Covent 
Garden now, where the young swells bought for 
the Honourable Miss Rhodanthe and for the Lady 
Rhodopis bouquets of the blushing Rose; and then, 
as now, he who would not or could not speak 
boldly to the maid of Athens, 

TiLOTj jULOv, ads dyawQy 

declared his love by these — 

^ Token flowers that tell 
What words can never speak so well. 

Rome, succeeding Greece in greatness, copying its 
customs, and lighting her Roman candles from Greek 
fire, showed an equal fondness for the Rose, Romans 



OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 



39 



of wealth and Romans of taste were as anxious as 
Horace, 

* Neu desint epulis rosae ; ' ^ 

and when the Rose-trees of Paestum had finished 
their autumnal bloom, they were succeeded by 
flowers artificially produced by means of hot water. 
Cleopatra, according to Athenseus, had the floor 
covered with them a foot and a half in thickness; 
and Nero is said to have expended at one feast 
nearly ^30,000 in Roses — a nice little order for his 
nurseryman. In their joys and in their sorrows the 
Rose was their favourite flower, and the Corona con- 
vivialiSy the Corona miptialis , and the Corona funebriSy 
were wreathed alike from the Rose. They made wine 
from Roses, conserves from Roses, perfumes,^ oil, and 
medicine from Roses. The Rosa canina took its 
name, it is said, like the Y^wo^olov of the Greeks, 
from its supposed power to cure hydrophobia ; 
and they used it, finally, in the embalming of 

^ Sir Walter Scott, in one of his notes to * Guy Mannering,' states 
that the metaphysical and philosophical Scotch judge, Lord Monboddo, 
in his enthusiasm for classical habits, used to give entertainments in St 
John's Street, Canongate, at which there was a circulation of excellent 
Bourdeaux in flasks, garlanded with roses, which were also strewed on 
the table after the manner of Horace. 

2 The historians of perfumery tell us that the Rose was the first 
flower from which perfume was made, and that Avicenna, an illustrious 
Arabian doctor, w^ho discovered the art of extracting the perfume of 
flowers by distillation, made his first experiment upon Rosa centifolia, 
and so invented Rose-water 



40 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

their dead, and in adorning the tombs of their 
heroes, then, as now, associated with human 
sorrow and joy. 

^ How much of memory dwells amidst thy bloom, 

Rose ! ever wearing beauty for thy dower ! 
The bridal day, the festival, the tomb, 
Thou hast thy part in each, thou stateliest flower ! ' 

Such are my slender memories of classical allusion 
to the Rose; but I do not lament this scantiness, 
because ' I have no opinion,' as Mr Lillyvick re- 
marked concerning the French language, of Greek 
or Roman floriculture. It was the only art in which 
these nations did not excel. We know nothing of 
Greek gardening, and that which we know of Roman 
is a disappointment The arrangement was formal 
and monotonous. They had ^come to build stately, 
but not to garden finely': and upon terraces and 
under colonnades, around bathrooms and statue 
groups, they placed horrible mutilations of evergreen 
shrubs, hacked by a diabolical process, which they 
called the Ars Topiaria, into figures of fishes and 
beasts and fowls, such as our own forefathers once 
rejoiced in, under the system of gardening surnamed 
the Dutch. The Roman gardener was actually called 
Topiarius ; and this terrible tree-barber went proudly 
round his arboric menagerie with the trenchant shears, 
pointing snouts, docking tails, and gaily disfiguring 



OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 41 

the face of nature, with the pleased demeanour of 
some cheerful savage cleverly tattooing his dearest 
friend. And history, repeating itself, tells us, through 
Mr Pope in The Guardian, how an eminent cook 
beautified his country-seat with a coronation dinner 
done in evergreens, the Champion flourishing in 
hornbeam at one end of the table, and the Queen in 
perpetual yew at the other. * But I, for my part,' 
writes Lord Bacon, * do not like to see images cut 
out in junipers and other garden stuff : they be for 
children.* ^ 

It is, however, enough to have shown that although 
the floral light of these Greeks and Romans was dim 
and feeble, it revealed to them the supreme beauty of 
the Rose ; and we shall find, as we pass down the 
highways of history from their times to our own, that 
against this Royal supremacy no voice has been ever 
raised. It has been reverently acknowledged always; 
but its great champions and laureates have been 
found, of course, among the poets — among those who 
love beauty most, and in whose hearts a love of the 
beautiful rings the 'manifold soft chimes' of song. 
In all lands and languages they have sung the Rose, 
and in none with sweeter service than our own. 

^ The Japanese are experts in the training of Pines, and we have in 
Mr James Herbert Veitch's charming book, **A Traveller's Notes,' 
the photograph of a marvellous specimen of their art — a tree represent- 
ing a sailing junk, of which the hull is 35 feet in length ! 



42 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

From Spenser to Tennyson there is no great English 
chorister who has not loved and lauded her. I have 
pages of extracts in my commonplace-book, but they 
are, I doubt not, familiar to most of my readers, and 
the assertion which I have made asks no further 
proof. 

The excellent beauty of the Rose has not only 
been appreciated in all times {se^nper), but in all 
climes. 

2. Uhiqtte} — Born in the East, it has been diffused, 
like the sunlight, over all the world. A flower, writes 
Pliny, known to all nations equally with wine, myrtle, 
and oil. It is found in every quarter of the globe — 
on glaciers, in deserts, on mountains, in marshes, in 
forests, in valleys, on plains, and on the sands of the 
sea. The Esquimaux, as Boitard tells us in his 
interesting ' Monographic de la Rose,' adorn their 
hair and their raiment of deer and seal skin with the 
beautiful blossoms of the Rosa nitida, which grows 

^ I cannot write this word without recording an anecdote, which has 
not, I believe, been published, but which well deserves to be. It was 
told to me by an artillery officer, that a gentleman, dining at the mess, 
Woolwich, mistook the Latin trisyllable Ubique on the regimental 
plate for a French dissyllable, and delighted the company by exclaim- 
ing, 'Ubique! Where's Ubique? — never heard of that battle ! ' A 
very similar question was put to myself, showing to a young friend, 
among some old curiosities, a medal which had been given to my 
grandfather at school, and on which were engraved his initials, the 
date, and the word MerentV — * Merenti ! ' he exclaimed, * how one 
forgets history ! ' (he might have said grammar also), ' 7vhen ivas that ? ' 



OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 43 

abundantly under their stunted shrubs. The Creoles 
of Georgia twine the white flowers of Rosa Icevigata 
among their sable locks, plucking them from the 
lower branches of climbing plants, which attach 
themselves to the garden trees of the forest, and 
bloom profusely on their boles and boughs. The 
parched shores of the Gulf of Bengal are covered 
during the spring with a beautiful white Rose, found 
also in China and Nepaul ; while in vast thickets of 
the beautiful Rosa se77ipervirens (a native also of 
China) the tigers of Bengal and the crocodiles of the 
Ganges are known to lie in wait for their prey. The 
north-west of Asia, which has been called the father- 
land of the Rose, introduces to our notice the Rosa 
centifolia, the most esteemed and renowned of all, 
with which the fair Georgians and Circassians 
enhance their fairness. And yet in the coldest 
regions — for nature is ever bountiful as beautiful, 
and that merciful power which makes the wheat to 
grow everywhere for our food, sends also for our 
delectation things pleasant to the eye — in Iceland 
(I wish to confess honourably that I am still filching 
from Boitard), so sterile in vegetation that in some 
parts the natives are compelled to feed their horses, 
sheep, and oxen on dried fish, we find the Rosa 
rubtgtnosa, with its pale, solitary, cup-shaped flowers; 
and in Lapland, blooming almost under the snows of 



44 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

that severe climate, the natives, seeking mosses and 
lichens for their reindeer, find the Rosa majalis and R, 
rubella, the former of which, brilliant in colour and of 
a sweet perfume, enlivens the dreariness of Norway, 
Denmark, and Sweden. 

And I come home now, eagerly as a carrier- 
pigeon to his native dovecot, to our own Rose- 
gardens — eagerly, because here, and here only, can 
our Queen be found in the full splendour of her royal 
beauty. The Roses of all lands are here, but so 
changed, so strengthened by climate, diet, and care, 
so refined by intermarriage with other noble families, 
that they would no more be recognised by their 
kinsfolk at home than Cinderella at the ball by 
her sisters. The fairy. Cultivation, has touched 
them with her wand, and the pale puny kitchen- 
girl steps out of her dingy gingham a princess, in 
velvet and precious point, like some glowing 
butterfly from his drab cocoon ; or as when, at 
the Circus, * Paddy from Cork' drops suddenly 
his broken hat, his slit coat, coarse breeks and 
brogues, and lo ! he is ' Winged Mercury.' They 
came, as ambassadors to the Queen's court, 
savages, 'with nothing on but their nudity,' their 
luggage a peacock's plume, and now they move 
with a majestic dignity in gorgeous yet graceful 
robes. 



OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 45 

Will you accompany me, my reader, to one of 
Queen Rosa's levees ? They differ in some points 
from Queen Victoria's — as, for example, in these : 
that the best time to attend them is at sunrise; 
that you may go to them with dressing-gown and 
slippers, or with shooting-coat and short pipe ; that 
the whole court will smile upon you according to 
your loyalty, not according to your looks or your 
income ; and that all the beauty which you see will 
be real — no false foliage, no somebody-else's ringlets, 
no rouge, no pastes, no powders, no perfumes but 
their own. 

Enter, then, the Rose-garden when the first sun- 
shine sparkles in the dew, and enjoy with thankful 
happiness one of the loveliest scenes of earth. 
What a diversity, and yet what a harmony, of 
colour ! There are White Roses, Striped Roses, 
Blush Roses, Pink Roses, Rose Roses, Carmine 
Roses, Crimson Roses, Scarlet Roses, Vermilion 
Roses, Maroon Roses, Purple Roses, Roses almost 
Black, and Roses of a glowing Gold. What a 
diversity, and yet what a harmony, of outline ! 
Dwarf Roses and climbing Roses, Roses closely 
carpeting the ground, Roses that droop in snowy 
foam like fountains, and Roses that stretch out 
their branches upwards as though they would kiss 
the sun ; Roses * in shape no bigger than an agate- 



46 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

stone on the fore-finger of an alderman/ and Roses 
five inches across ; Roses in clusters, and Roses 
blooming singly; Roses in bud, in their glory, 
decline, and fall. And yet all these glowing 
tints not only combine, but educe and enhance 
each the other's beauty. All these variations of 
individual form and general outline blend with 
a mutual grace. And over all this perfect unity 
what a freshness, fragrance, purity, splendour ! 
They blush, they gleam amid their glossy 
leaves, and 

* Never sure, since high in Paradise, 
By the four rivers, the first Roses blew,' 

hath eye seen fairer sight. Linnaeus wept when 
he came suddenly upon a wide expanse of golden 
furze ; and he is no true florist who has never felt 
the springs of his heart troubled, surging, over- 
flowing, as he looked on such a scene of beauty as 
that which I so feebly describe. Such visions 
seem at first too bright, too dazzling, for our 
weakly sight : we are awed, and we shrink to feel 
ourselves in a Divine presence ; the spirit is 
oppressed by a happiness which it is unworthy, 
unable to apprehend, and it finds relief in tears. 
It is such a feeling as one has, hearing for the 
first time the Hallelujah Chorus sung by a thou- 



OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 47 

sand voices, or seeing from * clear placid Leman ' 
the sunlight on Mont Blanc. 'It is too wonderful 
and excellent for me/ we say ; ' it is more like 
heaven than earth.' Or, with Milton, we ask in 
reverent wonder, — 

* What if earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things herein 
Each to each other like, more than on earth is thought ? ' 

and our prayers go up, as the incense from the 
Rose, for purer eyes and hearts. 

We have nothing in the whole range of floriculture 
so completely charming as a Rosary in 'the time 
of Roses.' A grower of most flowers, and a lover 
of all, I know of none which can compete with 
the Rose for colour, form, and fragrance, jointly, 
whether en masse or in single blooms. ' Orchids,' 
do I hear } Well, I have stood before Lcelia 
purpMrata and Cattleya Mendeli in an ecstasy of 
admiration, until, the flower-show being crowded, 
the police have requested me to move on. Not 
long ago I lost half my dinner because my eyes 
would wander from my plate to a Dendrobe (I 
forget its title) some distance up the table ; and 
I appreciate generally with a fond delight the 
delicacy, the refinement, the brilliancy of this 
lovely class. It is the aristocracy, but not the 
queen of the flowers. Regarding the two collectively, 



48 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

there is never to be found in the orchid-house the 
simultaneous splendour of the Rosary in July — 
the abundant glistening foliage, the sweet perfume ; 
and comparing the individual flowers, which would 
a lover take to his beloved — which would his darling, 
herself 

* A Rosebud set with little wilful thorns, 
And sweet as English air can make her/ 

osculate and pet the most? 

And the stove, truly, is a gladness and refreshment 
— gay, when all without is bleak and dismal, with 
the golden Allamanda, the rosy Dipladenia, so 
truthfully termed amabilis, the bridal Stephanotis, 
the brilliant Anthurium, the gorgeous Amaryllis, 
the Bougainvillea, Eucharis, Franciscea, Gardenia, 
Gloxinia, and many more ; but what will you find 
there like the Rose? Place Marechal Niel by the 
Allamanda, La France by the Dipladenia, a truss 
of Madame Bravy by the Stephanotis, Charles 
Lefebvre by the AmarylHs, and, like fair maids of 
honour and beautiful ladies in waiting, these inmates 
of the hothouse must bow before their Queen. 

It is the same in the conservatory. The Camellia 
is of faultless form, but it has not the grace, the 
ease, the expression of the Rose. It is like a face 
whereof every feature is perfect, but which lacks 
the changing charms of feeling and intellect. It is 



OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 49 

as the figure cast in a mould compared with that 
which has been chiselled by the sculptor. Neither 
has it the colours nor the scent. So with all other 
greenhouse favourites ; they are lovely — Azaleas, 
Begonias, Pelargoniums, Ericas — but not so lovely 
as the Rose. 

It is the same out of doors as under glass. The 
gardens of Bagshot, where nightingales sing, and 
Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Kalmias bloom, are 
sights to make an old man young ; but they show 
not to our eyes the brightness, the diversity of the 
Rose's hues, and for our noses they have com- 
paratively nothing — though I do not forget the 
fragrance of some of the more tender Rhododendrons, 
nor the delicious spicy fragrance of the sweet little 
Daphne cneorum. 

Glorious, too, are the Dahlias of Slough, of every 
hue, and in symmetry almost too severely perfect ; 
and yet, though the Dahlia may be 'Queen of 
Autumn,' the Rose is the Queen of Flowers. 

The tall, proud, stately, handsome Hollyhocks 

must bow their high heads to the Rose ; and the 

Lilies, the lovely Lihes, from Japan and elsewhere, 

which have come as beautiful strangers into our 

gardens, to beautify them henceforth for ever — 

for most of them are hardy, having due attention — 

and to see them, amid our evergreens, holding up 

P 



so A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

their golden and jewelled cups to catch the soft 
showers of June, is an ecstasy,— these may stand 
near, but may not mount, the throne. No, not even 
in combination and alliance can all the flowers of 
the garden compete with the Garden of Roses — 
not the flowers of spring on Belvoir s sunny slopes 
(though there is no vision of beauty so beautiful 
in all England at the time of their efflorescence), 
not the summer splendours of Drumlanrig or beau- 
tiful Hardwicke. Let the artistic ' bedder-out ' select 
his colours from all the tribes and families of plants ; 
his blacks and bronzes and dark deep reds from 
the Coleus, the Oxalis, Amaranthus, Iresine, and 
Beet ; his yellows from the Calceolaria, Marigold, 
and Viola ; his scarlets from the Pelargonium ; his 
purples, blues, and greys from the Verbena, the 
Lobelia, and Ageratum ; his whites from the 
Cerastium, Centaurea, Santolina, Alyssum ; let him 
have all that flower and foliage, arranged by con- 
summate taste, can do, he can never produce a 
scene so fair, because he can never produce a scene 
so natural, as he may have in a garden of Roses. 
It may be more brilliant, more imposing, but there 
will not be that perfect, graceful unity, of which 
the eye wearies never. It is like a triumphant 
march of organs, trumpets, and shawms, but the 
ear cannot listen to it so long, so happily, as to 



OUR QUEEN OF BEAUTY 51 

some plaintive horn in the calm eventide, some 
mellow ouzel fluting in the elm, or some sweet 
simple song. The gorgeous dame of fashion, the 
loud undaunted woman of the world, prismatic, 
brilliant, flaunting, glowing with a colour which, 
though decidedly 'fast,' will no more endure soft 
water than certain of our brightest ^bedders' will 
endure a drenching rain — she, I say, may bewilder 
the dazzled eye, and captivate the weaker brain ; 
but to the fresh, pure, gentle girl, whose blushes 
cannot be bought in Bond Street — to her be given 
St. Medard's wreath, for she only wins the wise 
man's heart. 

And the Rose, as it is admired, so may it be 
grown by all. 

Ab omnibus, — Loved by all grades and ages, 
from the little village child who wreathes it from 
the hedgerow in his sister's hair, to the princess 
who holds it in her gemmed boiiquetier, so it may 
be alike enjoyed in the labourer's garden or in the 
conservatory of the peer. Wherever it is loved, 
there will it display its beauty ; and the best Cloth- 
of-Gold I ever saw was on a cottager's wall. It 
is adapted for every position, and for every pocket 
too. The poorest may get his own Briers, and beg 
a few buds from the rich ; and men of moderate 
means may make or maintain a Rosary at a very 



52 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

moderate expense. There is nothing in floriculture 
to be purchased and perpetuated so cheaply as a 
garden of Roses. You may lay the foundation 
for a £s note ; and then, by budding and by 
striking cuttings from your own trees, and by an 
annual selection of a few additional and valuable 
varieties, may in two or three seasons possess a 
beautiful Rosarium. 

I will now endeavour to tell, practically and 
minutely, how this may be done. 



CHAPTER IV 



POSITION 

Where, is now our question, shall the Rosary be? 
In what part of our garden shall we find the best 
situation, the most worthy site for a royal throne? 
Some, indeed, have treated our Queen more as a 
menial than as a monarch ; they have sent Her 
Majesty by lobbies and back-stairs into dismal 
chambers which look down on bottle-racks, and to 
attics where, through clattering casement, the wintry 
winds blow chill. And this when they should have 
uncovered their drawing-room damask and thoroughly 
aired their best bed. 

Some, having heard that a free circulation of air 
and abundance of sunshine are essential elements 
of success, select a spot which would be excellent 
for a windmill, observatory, beacon, or Martello 
tower ; and there the poor Rose-trees stand, or, 
more accurately speaking, wobble, with their leaves, 
like King Lear's silver locks, rudely blown and 
drenched by the *to-and-fro contending wind and 

53 



54 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

rain. I have seen a garden of Roses — I mean a 
collection of Roseless trees — in front of a * noble 
mansion proudly placed upon a commanding emin- 
ence/ where, if you called upon a gusty day, the 
wind blew the powder from the footman's hair as 
soon as he had opened the front door, and other 
doors within volleyed and thundered a feu de joie 
in honour of the coming guest. 

Others, who had been told that the Rose loves 
shelter, peace, repose, have found * such a dear snug 
little spot,' not only surrounded by dense evergreen 
shrubs, but overshadowed by giant trees. Repose is 
there, assuredly — rest for the Rose when its harassed 
life is past, when it has nothing more for disease to 
prey upon, no buds for the caterpillar, no foliage 
for the aphis — the rest of a mausoleum ! You might 
as well expect a canary to sing in a hat-box as a 
Rose to blossom in this dreary dell. I was taken 
not long ago to a cemetery of this description, 
which had been recently laid out ; and there was 
such a confident expectation of praise in the pretty 
face of the lady who took me, that I was sorely 
puzzled how to express my feelings. I wished to 
be kind, I wished to be truthful ; and the result 
was some such a dubious compliment as the Sultan 
paid to the French pianist. The Frenchman, you 
may remember, was a muscular artist more remark- 



POSITION a 

able for power than pathos ; and he went at the 
instrument, and shook and worried it as a terrier 
goes in at rats. His exertions were sudorific ; and 
when he finished the struggle, with beads on his 
brow, the Sultan told him, ^that although he had 
heard the most renowned performers of the age, 
he had never met one who — perspired so freely ! ' 
Nor could I, with my heart as full of charity's milk 
as a Cheshire dairy of the cow's, think of any higher 
praise of the plot before me than that it was an 
admirable place for ferns ; and therefore, when my 
commentary was received with an expressive smile 
of genteel disgust, as though I had suggested that 
the allotment in question was tAe site of all others 
for a jail, or had said, as Carlyle said of the Royal 
Garden at Potsdam, that * it was one of the finest 
Fog-preserves in Europe,' then, without further pre- 
varications, I told the truth. And the truth is, that 
this boundless contiguity of shade is fatal, and every 
overhanging tree is fatal as an upas-tree to the 
Rose. As Ireland has been said to be too near 
a great country ever to achieve greatness for itself 
(I do not myself attribute its humidity or its in- 
dolence, its famines or its Fenianism, to the vicinity 
of England), so the Rose, in close proximity to a 
forest-tree, can never hope to thrive. In a twofold 
sense it takes umbrage ; robbed above and robbed 



$6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

below, robbed by branches of its sunshine, and by 
roots of its soil, it sickens, droops, and dies. A 
Rose under trees can no more flourish than a deer 
can get a good * head ' who never leaves the forest 
for the moor. 

These regicides were none the less correctly told 
— both those who kill by suffocation, and those who 
starve our Queen to death — that the Rose must have 
a free circulation of air, and likewise repose and rest. 
The directions may seem to be incongruous, but 
they can be, and must be, followed. The Rosarium 
must be both exposed and sheltered ; a place both 
of sunshine and of shade. The centre must be clear 
and open, around it the protecting screen. It must 
be a fold wherein the sun shines warmly on the 
sheep, and the wind is tempered to the shorn lamb ; 
a haven in which the soft breeze flutters the sail, 
but over which the tempest roars, and against whose 
piers the billow hurls itself, in vain. 

And this may, I think, be taken consequently as 
a golden rule in the formation of a Rose-garden : 
so arrange it that a large proportion of your trees 
may have the sunshine on them from its rise to the 
meridian, and after that time be in shadow and in 
repose. To effect this, the garden must extend in 
longitude from north to south rather than from east 
to west — the form being oblong or semicircular. 



POSITION 57 

The western wall or fence should be high, from 
8 to lo feet ; the northern tall and dense, but not 
necessarily so high as the western ; the eastern such 
as will keep out cold, cutting winds, but not one 
ray of- sunshine — say 5 feet. To the south the 
Rosary may be open ; but even here, so hurtful is 
a rough wind which occasionally blows from this 
quarter, that I prefer some slight protective screen, 
such as a low bank or bed. 

Of what material should we make the higher 
boundary fences? This is a question of time and 
of outlay. Walls are built at once, and are soon 
beautifully covered with climbing Roses, such as 
Gloire de Dijon and her daughters Madame Berard, 
Reve d'Or, Reine Marie Henriette, and with William 
Allen Richardson, UId(^al, Blairii 2, Charles Lawson, 
Ulrich Brunner, Duke of Edinburgh, Fortune's 
Yellow, the Banksian (the latter two on a west or 
south aspect), and the Sempervirens and Ayrshire 
Rose; but evergreen hedges of Yew, Holly, American 
Arborvitae, Berberis, Privet, and Hornbeam, are an 
admirable contrast to the glowing colours of the 
Rose, and introduce the air, like respirators, subdued 
and softened, into the Rosarium. But why not 
hedges of the Rose itself, such as we see in France ? 
Might we not have hedges of the common Brier, 
and bud them with our choicest varieties? Might 



58 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

we not make hedges of the Ayrshire, Sempervirens, 
Boursault, Japanese, and Sweetbrier Rose ? ^ I have 
had a hedge of Rosa villosa these twenty years,' 
writes Mr. Robertson, a nurseryman at Kilkenny, 
in 1834, * about 8 or 10 feet high, which is a sheet 
of bloom every May, and throughout the rest of the 
season flowers with the Boursault, Noisette, Hybrid 
China, and other Roses which are budded on it/ 
' At the Isle of Bourbon,' writes Mr. Rivers, quoting 
Monsieur Breon, in the * Rose Amateurs' Guide,' 
*the inhabitants generally enclose their land with 
hedges made of two rows of Roses — one row of the 
Common China Rose, the other of the Red Four 
Seasons.' And in the Gardeners Chroi^icle of June 
19, 1869, we have the description of a hedge of 
Roses, grown at Digswell, Hertfordshire, 280 feet 
in length. 

Catullus, in one beautiful line, describes the benign 
and gracious influences which we should seek to 
obtain for the Rose. He writes of a flower, 

* Quern mulcent auras, firmat sol, educat imber,' 

to which the air nimbly and sweetly recommends 
itself, bringing the complexion of beauty, but not 
visiting the cheek too roughly, which the sun 
strengthens but does not scorch, which the shower 
refreshes but the tempest spares. Such a genial 



POSITION 59 

home we must find, or make, for our Roses, wherein 
we may see them in a serene and placid loveliness, 
what time their unprotected sisters are withering 
beneath burning suns, and may admire their ample 
and glossy foliage when, in exposed and unfenced 
ground, the furious wind seems almost to blow out 
the very sap from the shimmering, shivering leaves. 
Transitory, almost ephemeral, is 'a Rose's brief life 
of joy,' 

and there comes a broiling day towards the end of 
June, when the Rose, unshaded, is burnt to tinder, 
and the petals of that magnificent Charles Lefebvre, 
which was intended for next day's show, crumble as 
we touch, and are as the parsley which accompanies 
the hot rissole. Or there comes a gusty day, and lo ! 
that lovely bloom which was perfect just now in tint 
and symmetry, is chafed, discoloured, deformed, for 
want of a guardian screen. I know that in the one 
case something may be done by the use of those 
florumbras and metallic hats of which I shall have 
more to say when I speak of Roses for exhibition 
— and that in the other, strong stakes, secure tying, 
and low stature will do much to save ; but in both 
instances a natural shelter and a natural shade are far 
more reliable aids — far more conducive to the beauty 
and endurance of the Rose. 



6o A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

* Cease firing/ I hear it said ; ^ you are shooting 
over your target, and wasting powder and ball. You 
are talking of walls and hedges and banks— of 
crescents and parallelograms, as though all your 
readers had the wealth and the acres of Lord 
Carabbas. You are sermonising above your con- 
gregation — at all events, enjoining precepts which 
they are unable to perform. You are writing for 
the few, and not, as you promised, for the many.' 
But this, I must plead, is as unjust an accusation 
of exclusiveness as was brought against a clerical 
neighbour and friend of mine, a good and gentle 
pastor, by one of his flock, on this wise. He had 
been preaching, he told me, a simple discourse on 
the duties and privileges of a Churchman, and he 
was leaving the porch after his people, when an 
old man, not aware of his proximity, turned to 
another veteran, as they hobbled out of the church 
together, and said, ^Well, Tommy, my lad, thou sees 
there's no salvation for nobbody but him and a few 
partickler friends ! ' He had preached, nevertheless, 
as I would fain write, without respecting persons, the 
truth for all. If I have any special sympathy, it is 
certainly with the poorer portion of our brotherhood ; 
and as I have passed through all the grades of Rose- 
growing, commencing with a dozen only (nay, I well 
remember tke Rose which first won my allegiance, 



POSITION 6i 

D'Aguesseau Gallica, as a man remembers the first 
love-smile of his heart's queen), and gradually in- 
creased to my maximum of 5000 (maximum, do I 
say ? trop n'est pas assez ; and if I had Nottingham- 
shire full of Roses, I should desire Derbyshire for a 
budding ground), I can identify myself with Rose- 
growers of all denominations, and with Rose-gardens 
of every shape and size. 

And the directions which I have offered apply 
equally to the small as to the larger Rosary — expose 
to the morning's sunshine, protect from cutting wind. 
Give the best place in your garden to the flower 
which deserves it most. In the smallest plot, you 
may make, if you do not find, such a site as I have 
described. You will make it, if you are in earnest. 
I have seen old boards, old staves (reminding one of 
the time when the Bordeaux casks made fences 
commonly in English gardens), old sacking, torn 
old tarpaulins — yes, once an old black serge petti- 
coat — set up by the poor to protect the Rose ; and 
there I have ever seen her smiling upon Love, 
however mean its offering, and rewarding its un- 
tiring service. 

For the flirt, for the faint-hearted, for the coxcomb, 
who thinks that upon his first sentimental sigh she 
will rush into his arms and weep, she has nothing 
but sublime disdain. 



62 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



Of this, and before I speak upon Soil^ let me 
submit an illustration. 

Not many summers since, three individuals, of 
whom I was one, were conversing in a country home. 
One of my companions was about to succeed the 
other as tenant of the house in which we were met, 
and was making anxious inquiry about the garden 
in general, and concerning Roses in particular. 
^ Oh ! ' said our host, * the place is much too 
exposed for Roses. No man in the world is fonder 
of them than I am, and I have tried all means, and 
spared no expense ; but it is simply hopeless.' 
^ Must have Roses' was the quiet commentary of 
the newcomer ; and two years afterwards I met 
him at the local flower-show, the winner of a first 
prize for twelve. * My predecessor,' he said, ^ was 
no more the enthusiast which he professed to be 
about Roses, than that Quaker was an enthusiastic 
almsgiver who had felt so much for his afflicted 
friend but had not felt in his pocket. The pleasure- 
grounds, it is true, are too bleak for prize blooms, but 
in the large, half-cultivated kitchen-garden, I found 
the most delightful corner, with an eastern aspect ; 
put in one hundred Briers; budded them last summer; 
manured them abundantly this ; and am now, between 
ourselves, and sub rosd^ in such a bumptious con- 
dition, that you'd think I'd m^ade the Roses myself/ 



POSITION 63 

There is, alas ! one locality, beneath that dark 
canopy of smoke which hangs over and around 
our large cities and manufacturing towns, wherein 
it is not possible to grow the Rose in its glory ; 
and many a time as I have stood in the pure air 
and sunshine among my own beautiful flowers, I 
have felt a most true and sorrowful sympathy for 
those who, loving the Rose as fondly as I do, are 
unable to realise its perfect beauty. Well, no man 
can have his earthly happiness just in the way he 
wills ; but every man, as a rule, has his equal share, 
and these men, I doubt not, have other successes as 
solace and compensation. Nay, are not their Roses, 
which we, more favoured, should regard as disappoint- 
ments, successes to them, great and gratifying? If 
Mr. Shirley Hibberd, once the champion and teacher 
of urban and oppidan amateurs, could grow good 
Roses within four miles of the General Post-Office 
— and I have seen the proofs of his skill and per- 
severance at one of the great London Rose-shows, 
to my high surprise and delectation — it is quite 
certain that he would have been mdli semndus with 
the full advantage of situation and soil. Nor do I 
hesitate to say that the collection to which I refer, 
necessarily less perfect than those around it in 
colour and in size, seemed to me the most honour- 
able of all 



64 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

What can I offer besides the hand of friendship 
and the praise of an old Rosarian to these brave 
brethren of the Rose? The most robust varieties 
must be planted in the best place, and in the best 
soil available, avoiding drip and roots. They must 
be manured in the winter and mulched in the spring. 
In the summer months let them be well watered 
below and well syringed above tzvo or three times a 
zveek. Let grubs and aphides be removed, and 
sulphur, or soot, or soap-and-water, applied as soon 
as mildew shows itself. I am now resident close 
by the main street of the city of Rochester, in 
proximity to countless chimneys, long and short, 
polluting the atmosphere, discolouring the flowers, 
and accompanied from time to time by an offensive 
odour of cement. The soil of my garden is a light 
loam, distant from one to three feet from a stratum 
of chalk. Nevertheless, by a selection of the fittest, 
such as Mrs John Laing, Ulrich, Brunner, and Gloire 
de Dijon, by watchful observation, careful pruning, 
protection from frost, and a generous supply of 
manure, I succeed in producing an abundance of 
beautiful Roses though, I need hardly say, * not for 
exhibition/ 



CHAPTER V 



SOILS 

* What a constitution must that air and soil of 
Herefordshire give the Rose ! ' So wrote Dr. 
Lindley, praising the beautiful blooms which Mr, 
Cranston brought from the King's Acre, by Hereford 
city, to the first grand National Rose Show. And 
we aliens read with envy. Rivers, and the Pauls, 
and Lane, and Francis, gazed sorrowfully a while 
on the / in Hertfordshire ; from Sussex, so it seemed 
to Messrs. Wood and Mitchell, all success had fled ; 

* So much for Buckingham,' sighed Mr. Turner, from 
the slough of his deep despair ; in Wiltshire, even 
Keynes, the stout - hearted, looked ruefully for a 
moment on his fair garden as though it had been 
Salisbury Plain ; in Essex, Mr. Cant of Colchester 
was mute as one of its oysters ; and as these great 
leaders of Queen Rosa's armies were seized with a 
brief despair, we privates and non - commissioned 
officers were not what we should have been with 
regard to knees, and felt a sudden conviction that 



66 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



the time had come when we ought to retire from the 
service. That gust, which caused the light to flicker 
in our grand chandehers and lamps, all but blew out 
for ever our rush-lights and farthing dips. 

It was but a gust and a surprise. ' It was a 
moment's fantasy, and as such it has passed.' Those 
generals, whose eyes blinked for a second as they 
read of the superior powers of Hereford, have since 
won glorious victories, each for his shire. 

There are no duties upon sunshine, there are no 
monopolies in air ; and there are thousands of acres, 
both sides the Border, as genial for the Rose as the 
King's by Hereford — nurseries and gardens in every 
part of Victoria's realm, from which Mr. Cranston, or 
any other man, with his fondness for the flower and 
persevering skill in its culture, may grow it in all its 
glory. 

But idleness and ignorance will not believe it. 
Dwelling in a land of Roses, in a land where the 
woods and lanes and hedges are clothed at summer- 
tide with Roses, they prefer the stolid conviction 
that the stars in their courses fight against them, 
that meteorology and geology are their bitter foes. 
Look over your garden wall with a beautiful Rose 
in your coat, and your neighbour, loitering with his 
hands in his pockets, knee-deep in groundsel, amid 
his beds undrained, undug, will sigh from the depths 



SOILS 67 

of his divine despair, ' What a soil yours is for the 
Rose ! ' Some of my own friends talk to me regularly 
as the summer comes, not as though I had any 
special fondness or took any special pains, but as if 
my garden would grow excellent Roses, whether I 
liked it or no. At first, and as a neophyte, I used 
to feel a little irritation when all the glory was given 
to the ground ; and I remember upon one occasion 
that I could not refrain from informing a gentleman 
(who bored me with the old unchanging commentary) 
that wild Rose-trees, transplanted from the hedgerow 
to my garden in the autumn, grew flowers large 
enough for exhibition the next summer but one. It 
was the simple fact concerning budded Briers, but 
he took away the inference, which I blush to own 
was meant for him, that the transformation was 
effected by the soil solely ; and he was very angry, 
I heard afterwards, when his views on the subject 
were not universally accepted by a large dinner-party 
in his own house. 

How often has it been said to me, * Oh, what a 
garden is yours for Roses ! We have a few nice 
flowers, but of course we can't compete with you. 
Old Mr. Drone, our gardener, tells us that he never 
saw such a good soil as yours, nor so bad a soil as 
ours, for Roses.' And herein is a fact in horticulture 
— Mr. Drone always has a bad soil. An inferior 



68 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



gardener, whether his inferiority is caused by want 
of knowledge or want of industry (the latter as a 
rule), is always snarling at his soil. Whatever fails 
— flowers, fruits, or vegetables, shrubs or trees — the 
fault rests ever with the soil. Hearing some of these 
malcontents declaim, you would almost conclude that 
a tree, planted over- night, would be discovered next 
morning prostrate upon its back, ejected by the soil 
in disgust. Only by superhuman efforts, they will 
assure you, combined with extraordinary talent, can 
anything be induced to grow but weeds. The place 
might be, like Hood's Haunted House, 

* Under some prodigious ban 
Of excommunication ' — 

a place from which Jupiter had warned Phoebus and 
Zephyrus and Pomona and Flora, on pain of hot 
thunderbolts. They come there, of course, from a 
spirit of disobedience, but only on the sly, and 
seldom. The old, old story — the muff, coming from 
his wicket with his second cipher, and blaming the 
uneven ground, the ball which 'broke in' with a 
wild defiance of every natural law, and baffled all 
that science knew ; the bad shot, whose ' beast of a 
gun ' is always on half-cock when the rare woodcock 
comes, and on whose eyes the sun sheds ever his 
extra-dazzling rays ; the bad rider, who ' never gets 



SOILS 69 

a start' (nor wants one), and whose fractious horse 
* wouldn't go near the brook' at the very crisis of 
the run. 

The good gardener, on the contrary, the man 
whose heart is in his work, makes the most of his 
means, instead of wasting his time in useless lamenta- 
tions. He knows that this world is no longer Eden, 
and that only by sweat of brow and brain can he 
bring flower or fruit to perfection. ^ Let me dig 
about it and dung it,' he says of the sterile tree, 
knowing as it was known when the words were 
spoken, more than eighteen hundred years ago, 
that to prune, and to feed the roots, is to reclaim 
and to restore, wherever there is hope of restora- 
tion.^ 

No long time ago, and while the judges at a 
flower-show were making their awards, I strolled 
with two other exhibitors, gardeners, into a small 
nursery-ground not far distant. My companions 
were strangers to me, but still more strange to each 
other, for they seemed to differ in all points, as much 
as two men having the same vocation could. The 
one was of a cheerful countenance and conversation, 
ruddy with health, lithe and elastic as a hunter in 

^ The occasional lifting and tap-root pruning of Standard Rose- 
trees is beneficial, as a rule ; but exceptions should be made, when 
the growth of stock, scion, and flower is vigorous, upon the excellent 
principle of letting well alone. 



70 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

condition ; the other ponderous, morose, flabby — 
complexion, gamboge and green. Not knowing their 
real appellations, I named them in my own mind 
Doleful and Gaylad, after two foxhounds of my 
acquaintance. Doleful soon found the fox he 
wanted — something to decry and depreciate ; and 
he gave tongue with a deep melancholy howl, which 
might have been the last sad wail of poor Gelert. 
Gaylad simultaneously, but in an opposite direction, 
went away with his fox — something to admire and 
praise ; but his tone was full of mirth and music, and 
he seemed thoroughly to enjoy the sport. Doleful 
had just growled to me in confidence that he 
* wouldn't have the place as a gift,' when Gaylad 
pronounced it 'a jolly little spot,' and told the 
occupier, who was hard at work, that this nursery 
did him credit. I found out, as we returned, that 
these two men were competitors in the same class ; 
and I found, as I anticipated, on entering the show 
that Gaylad was first, and Doleful nowhere. Sub- 
sequently, at the dinner, and as I again expected, 
Mr. Doleful informed us that his defeat was to be 
attributed entirely to the wretched nature of his soil ; 
a remark which was received with a graceful silence 
by the company in general, and by Mr. Gaylad in 
particular with a festive wink. 

Some soils, we all know, are naturally more 



SOILS 71 

beneficent than others, but gardening is an art ; its 
primary business 

* To study culture, and with artful toil 
To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil ; ' 

and its success certain, wherever this cura colendi is 
undertaken by working heads and hands. I know of 
only one soil in which the attempt to grow grand 
Roses would he hopeless — a case of ^ Patience sitting 
by the Pool of Despondency and angling for impossi- 
bilities,' with never a nibble — and that is the light 
barren sand called ^ drift ' and ' blowaway,' of which 
the clay farmer said derisively that it might be 
ploughed with a Dorking cock and a carving-knife ! 
Mud, we are told in Mortimer's ' Husbandry,' makes 
an extraordinary manure for land that is sandy, but 
this gritty rubbish demoralises whatever comes. You 
may expel Nature with a muck-fork on Monday, but 
on Tuesday morning she will be back, and grinning. 

This exception, however, only proves the rule, that 
difficulties must yield to cultivation, and to free-trade 
in soil. This is, no doubt, a matter of Radical 
Reform {Radix^ genitive radicis^ a root), but the 
Conservatories have taken a decided lead in it. The 
growers of stove and greenhouse plants collect their 
material from all quarters : from India, the fibres of 
the cocoa-nut ; their sand from Reigate ; their peat 
from Bagshot ; their leaf-mould, their Sphagnum, 



72 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

and other mosses, from forest and bog ; their top- 
spits from the rich old pasture ; their manures, 
natural and artificial, from Peru to the farmyard. 
They stand in their potting-sheds surrounded by 
these varied articles of home and foreign produce, 
even as the men of Gunter among the rich ingredients 
of the matrimonial cake. Regard, too, the perfect 
drainage provided for these plants ; no chronic 
saturation, dangerous to life, as all dropsies are ; no 
perpetual conflict between air and water, but each 
exercising its function in peace. And yet many a 
man who knows all this and practises it within doors 
stands helpless and hopeless on the soil without, I 
have walked out of houses where Orchids and stove- 
plants, and even those hard-wooded inmates of the 
greenhouse which so thoroughly test the plantsman's 
skill — those Ericas, for example, which come indeed 
from the Cape of Good Hope, but too often bring 
dark despair — were all in admirable condition, and 
have been told, as I stood upon soil the facsimile of 
my own, and better, ^ W e can't grow Roses/ There 
is only one reply, — ' You won't.' 

Because I know that Roses may be grown to 
perfection in the ordinary garden soil, if they have 
such a position as I have described in the preceding 
chapter, and if that soil is cultivated — I don't mean 
occasionally scratched with a rake and tickled with a 



SOILS 73 

hoe, or sprinkled with manure from a pepper-box, 
but thoroughly drained, and dug, and dunged. I am 
not theorising, nor playing the game of speculation 
with my readers — not writing from a fertile soil, 
regardless of the difficulties of others, like the Irish 
absentee who, dating from his cosy club in London, 
thus addressed his agent in a dangerous, disaffected 
district : — ^ Don't let them think that, by shooting you, 
they will at all intimidate me ; ' but I have proved 
that which I preach in practice. Upon two soils as 
different from each other as soils can be, though only 
separated by a narrow stream, I have grown Roses 
which have won the premier prizes at our chief ^ All 
England ' shows. On one side of the brook the 
ground is naturally a strong, red, tenacious clay ; on 
the other, a very light, weak, porous loam, with a 
soft, marly subsoil. 

The first thing to do with a cold adhesive clay is 
to drain it, and to drain it well. When water stag- 
nates around the roots of a plant, they cannot receive 
the air or the warmth which are alike essential to 
their health — nay, life. Cut your drains with a good 
fall, straight, and four feet deep ; and do not forget, 
when you have made them, to look from time to 
time, in seasons of wet, whether or no they are doing 
their duty. Use tile, not fagots, which soon, in most 
cases, become non-conductors. 



74 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

Having provided channels of escape for the super- 
abundant moisture, make it as easy as may be, in the 
next place, for the moisture to reach them. Trench 
your ground, and by exposing it to atmospheric 
influence, make it as porous and friable as you can. 
Then consider what additions you may introduce 
to its improvement. ^Anything,' writes Morton in 
his work upon the ^ Nature and Property of Soils,' 
^ which will produce permanent friability in clay soils 
— such as sand, cinders, lime, soot, burnt clay, loose 
light vegetable matter, or long unfermented manure 
— will alter its texture and improve its quality.' Of 
these, having tried them fairly, I have found that 
which is happily the closest to our hand (like a 
thousand other privileges and blessings, had we but 
eyes to see them) to be the most advantageous — I 
mean burnt clay. Some of our modern writers and 
lecturers speak of it as of a recent discovery ; but the 
Romans knew it, and used incinerated soils two 
thousand years before Sir Humphry Davy wrote — 
* The process of burning renders the soil less compact, 
less tenacious and retentive of moisture; and properly 
applied, may convert matter that was stiff, damp, and 
in consequence cold, into one powdery, dry, and 
warm, and much more proper as a bed for vegetable 
life.' Let those Rosarians, therefore, who have heavy 
tenacious soils, having first tapped their dropsical 



SOILS 75 

patients by drain and trench, promote their con- 
valescence by a combination of ancient and modern, 
external and internal, pharmacy ; let them unite the 
old custom of cautery, as they burn their clay, with 
the new precepts of homoeopathy, siniilia similibus 
curantur. And with this object let them save every- 
thing, as we are wont to do in our school-days when 
the festival of Fawkes drew nigh for a bonfire. Keep 
the prunings of your Rosary, that new Roses, like the 
Phoenix, may spring from the funeral-pyre ; preserve 
all other prunings, decayed vegetables, haulm, roots, 
refuse, rubbish, weeds — 

* Since nought so vile, that on the earth doth live, 
But to the earth some special good doth give/ 

and when you have a goodly omnium gatherum^ make 
ready your furnace. Arrange your thorns and more 
inflammable material as a base, then an admixture of 
more solid fuel from your stores, likening and con- 
densing alternately, and in the centre disposing some 
large pieces de resistance^ such as old tree stumps, use- 
less pieces of rotting timber, and the like, which, once 
fairly on fire, will go smouldering on for a fortnight. 
On this heap, well kindled, and around it, place your 
clay, renewing it continually as the fire breaks 
through. The pile must be watched so that the 
flames may be thus constantly suppressed, the clay 
burnt gradually, and not charred to brickdust. * The 



76 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

ashes of burnt soil are said to be best/ writes Morton, 
' when they are blackest ; black ashes are produced 
by slow combustion, and red ashes by a strong fire/ 
Blend these ashes with the parent soil, intermixing 
lime, rammel, or sand (if you can get them), and then 
there remains, so far as the soil is concerned, but 
one addition to be made, and of this we will treat 
presently. 

First crossing, if you please, the little bridge 
which divides my Rose-gardens, and passing over 
the narrow streamlet, from a cold clay soil, fertilised 
by cultivation, to a light, porous, feeble loam, best 
described by a labourer digging it when he said, * It 
had no more natur' in it than work'us soup.' Nor 
was it ever my intention to try Roses in this meagre 
material, until a friend happened one day to say of 
it, * No man in England could grow Roses there^ 
Then, fired by a noble ambition, or pig-headed 
perverseness, whichever you please, I resolved to 
make the experiment. I took a spade as soon as 
he was gone, for a happy thought had struck me 
that this soil might resemble that boy -beloved 
confection Trifle, which, thin, frothy, and tasteless 
in the upper stratum, has below a delicious subsoil 
of tipsy-cake and jam. So I found out in my garden, 
not far from the surface, a dark, fat, greasy marl 
rich as the nuptial almond-paste, and looking as 



SOILS 77 

though the rain had washed into it all the goodness 
of the upper ground. The lean and the fat, the 
froth and the preserves, were soon mixed for me by 
the spade aforesaid ; and in this soil, trenched and 
exposed to the air for a few weeks afterwards, I 
planted my Briers. Then followed the manure, of 
which I have yet to speak, and in due course the 
Roses. These in their first summer, 1865 (I do not 
chronicle my success from egotism, but as facts for 
the encouragement of others), won the two first prizes 
at Birmingham, and two seconds at the Crystal 
Palace, with very little assistance from their allies 
over the water ; and in 1 868, from ^ maiden ' stocks 
— from Briers budded in 1867 — I won fourteen 
first prizes out of sixteen collections shown, includ- 
ing that which was then considered the champion 
prize of all, the first awarded to amateurs at the 
Grand National Show of the Royal Horticultural 
Society. 

In this case, as with the heavy clay, the remedy 
lay close to the disease ; and in very many similar 
cases it will be found that, by intermixing the 
stronger and more tenacious subsoil with the surface, 
fertility may be secured. If not in actual proximity, 
the element required for a defective soil — clay, for 
example, when sand predominates — may be procured 
generally at no great distance, and may be fetched 



78 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



in a waggon or a wheelbarrow,^ in accordance with 
ways and means. Let Horticulture in this matter 
learn a lesson from her younger sister ; and let the 
gardener who is whimpering over his rood of un- 
kindly soil remember what the farmer has done and 
is doing, the wide world over, amid the forest and 
the fen. And such pusillanimity is specially comic 
in the case of a Scotsman or Englishman who is 
surrounded by a thousand proofs of triumphant 
cultural skill ; who may walk, from dawn to dusk, 
among golden corn, where once the antlered monarch 
spent his life, unscared by hound or arrow ; among 
flocks and herds, knee-deep in herbage, where fifty 
years ago the blackcock crowed amid the purple 
heather, where 

* The coot was swimming in the reedy pond, 
Beside the water-hen, so soon affrighted ; 
And where, by whispering sedge, the heron, fond 
Of sohtude, alighted.' 

* Richard ' — thus I spoke to the indolent and obese 
proprietor of a small freehold in my neighbourhood, 
who was complaining to me that his garden, about 
as highly cultivated as Mariana's at the Moated 
Grange, was viciously and desperately incapable of 

^ A gardener remarked to a friend of mine, who had won a first 
prize for Roses at Newark, * I believe, sir, that you have got the only 
garden in all Lincolnshire which could grow such blooms.' * And 
I brought it there,' my friend responded, ' in a wheelbarrow.^ 



SOILS 79 

producing anything but ^ docks ' — * Richard, your 
forefathers have helped to reclaim the greater part 
of Sherwood Forest, while their neighbours were 
draining the Lincoln fens ; and I should almost 
have hoped, taking into account the discoveries of 
modern science, that you might, in a favourable 
season, have educed a few potatoes even from the 
depraved material before us/ But he didn't seem 
to see it. 

Wherefore I would ask to narrate, in antithesis, 
and to take away, as it were, a nauseous flavour — 
like the fig which followed the castor -oil of our 
youth — another small incident. The * navvy' is not 
commonly a man of floral proclivities, but I met 
with a grand exception a few years ago in the leader 
of a gang then working upon one of our midland 
lines. When the work was done, and the band 
dispersed, he applied for and obtained a gatehouse 
on the rail, and to that tenement was attached the 
meanest apology for a garden which I ever saw in 
my life. Knowing his love of flowers, I condoled 
with him at the beginning of his tenancy ; but he 
only responded with a significant grunt, and a look 
at the garden, as though it were a football and he 
was going to kick it over the railway. It seemed 
to me a gravel - bed, and nothing more. Twelve 
months after I came near the place again — was it 



8o 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



a mirage which I saw on the sandy desert ? There 
were vegetables, fruit-bushes, and fruit-trees, all in 
vigorous health ; there were flowers, and the flower- 
queen in her beauty. 'Why, Will,' I exclaimed, 
'what have you done to the gravel-bed?' 'Lor' 
bless yer,' he replied, grinning, ' I hadn't been here 
a fortnight afore I swopped it for a pond I' He had, 
as a further explanation informed me, and after an 
agreement with a neighbouring farmer, removed with 
pick and barrow his sandy stratum to the depth of 
three feet, wheeled it to the banks of an old pond, 
or rather to the margin of a cavity where a pond 
once was, but which had been gradually filled up 
with leaves and silt ; and this rich productive mould 
he had brought home a distance of 200 yards, 
replacing it with the gravel, and levelling as per 
contract. Some other neighbour had given him a 
cart-load of clay, and the children had 'scratted 
together a nicst bit o' muck, and he meant stirring 
up them cottagers at next show with Roses, and 
" kidneys " too.' 

It occurred to me, as I rode home reflecting, that 
there was a striking similarity in this case, as in 
many others, between the gardener and his ground ; 
for Will had been at one time a drinking, poaching, 
quarrelsome ' shack,' and was now a good husband, 
a good father, and, I believe, a good Christian ; — 



SOILS ii 

the gravel had been converted into loam. And is 
there not much resemblance between ourselves and 
our soils — the soil without, and that soil within, which 
the Psalmist calls 'the ground of the heart'? No 
two characters, and no two gardens, exactly alike, 
but all with the same natural propensity to send up 
wild oats and weeds ; all requiring continuous culture, 
training, and watchful care ; all dependent, when man 
has done his best, upon the sunshine and rains of 
heaven. * Soils,' writes Loudon, ' not kept friable by 
cultivation, soon become hardened ; ' and so do hearts. 
But from ourselves, as from our soils, we may eject 
the evil, introducing the good in its place ; we may 
grow Roses instead of weeds, if we will. * Upon the 
same man,' writes Richter, who was a florist as well 
as a philosopher, and seldom appeared in the streets 
of Bayreuth without a flower in his coat, * as upon a 
vine-planted mount, there grow more kinds of wine 
than one : on the south side something little worse 
than nectar, on the north side something little better 
than vinegar.' But we may level the hill by humbling 
our pride, and so lay open the whole vineyard before 
the summer sun. 

I pass now to the consideration of a subject which 
is one of the most important of all to those who desire 
to grow Roses in perfection. 



CHAPTER VI 



MANURES 

I OPENED noiselessly the other morning, that I 
might enjoy a father s gladness, the door of a room 
in which my little boy, ' six off/ was at his play. 
Under the table, walled round by every available 
chair, with a fire-screen for the front door, and a 
music-stool, inverted atop to represent the main stack 
of chimneys, he was evidently entertaining a beloved 
and honoured guest. The banquet had just com- 
menced, and the courteous host was recommending 
to his distinguished visitor (a very large and hand- 
some black retriever, by name ' Colonel the viands 
before him. These viands, upon a cursory glance 
through the chair-legs, did not strike me as of an 
appetising or digestible character — the two pieces de 
resistance consisting of a leg-rest and a small coal- 
scuttle, and the side dishes being specimens of the 
first Atlantic Telegraph Cable, presented to me by 
Sir Charles Bright, with a selection of exploded 
cartridges, sea-shells, ninepins, buttons, marbles, and 

82 



MANURES 83 

keys. In the vivid imagination of childhood, not- 
withstanding, they represented all the luxuries dearest 
to the palate of youth ; and if the Colonel, who, by 
the bye, was in full uniform, made from the supple- 
ment of the Times newspaper, and was decore with 
the Order of the String and Penwiper, had partaken 
of a tithe of the delicacies pressed on him, and 
according to the order in which they were served, 
there must have been inevitably speedy promotion in 
his regiment. The menu, orally announced by the 
host, opened with cheese, and passed on to hasty- 
pudding, which were followed in rapid succession by 
peaches, beef, roley-poley, hare, more hasty-pudding, 
honey, apricots, and boiled rabbits, the liquids being 
cowslip-wine and beer. ' And now. Colonel, dear,' 
were the last words I heard, *you shall have some 
pigeon-pie and custard, and then we'll smoke a 
cigar.' ^ 

In like manner does the wee, golden-haired lassie 
delight to do homage to the queen of her little world, 
her doll, watching her tenderly, and singing a lullaby 

1 I cannot resist an impulse to record another small incident which 
occurred to ' Colonel ' soon after the publication of this book. Late 
one winter's night, Joe, my footman, heard him growling angrily 
outside the stable-yard, and found him standing over the prostrate 
form of a man, or rather beast, so drunk that he was muttering 
responses to the dog, evidently under the impression that he was being 
severely reprimanded by some indignant person in authority. * Well^ 
sir^ (Joe heard him plead), ^ if I did say so ^ Fin sure I didtt't mean it!' 



84 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

which, regarding the condition of those two immense 
blue eyes, appears to be quite hopeless ; then decking 
her with every bit of finery which she can beg from 
mammy or nurse, and waiting upon her with a fond, 
untiring service. 

And even so did I, in the childhood of that life, 
which is always young — do not our hearts foreknow, 
my brothers, the happy truth, which old men certify, 
that the love of flow^ers is of those few earthly plea- 
sures which age cannot wither ?^ — even so did I, in 

* My sallet days, 
When I was green in judgment,' 

essay, with an enthusiastic, though ofttimes mistaken, 
zeal, to propitiate and to serve the Rose. And 
specially, as with my little boy and his large idol, in 
the matter of food, I tried to please her with a great 
diversity of diet. I made anxious experiment of a 
multiplicity of manures — organic and inorganic, 
animal and vegetable, cheap and costly, home and 
foreign. I laboured to discover her favourite dish as 
earnestly as the alchemist to realise the Philosopher s 
Stone; but I differed from the alchemist, the 
Rosarian from the Rosicrucian, in one essential point 
— / found it I 

Where } Not down among the bones. I tried 
bones of all denominations— bones in their integrity, 



MANURES 85 

bones crushed, bones powdered, bones dissolved with 
sulphuric and muriatic acid, as Liebig bade ; and I 
have a very high admiration of the bone as a most 
sure and fertilising manure. For agricultural pur- 
poses, for turnips, for grass recently laid down, or for 
a starved, exhausted pasture, whereupon you may 
write your name with it; and in horticulture, for the 
lighter soils, for the vine-border, for plants (the 
Pelargonium especially), it is excellent ; but in the 
Rosary, although a magnum (I feel in writing the 
pun like the little boy who chalked ' No Popery ^ on 
Dr Wiseman's door, half ashamed of the deed, and 
desirous to run), it is not the summum bonum of 
manures. 

Nor up the chimney — though, for Roses on the 

Manetti stock, and for Tea-Roses, soot is good 

manure, and useful as a surface-dressing for hot 

dry soils. Nor among the autumn leaves, although 

these also, decayed to mould and mixed with the 

soil, are very advantageous; and sure and great is 

the reviving power, which gives back to the ground, 

according to the gracious law of Providence, the 

strength which was borrowed from it ; when 

* The world of matter, in its various forms, 
All dies into new life — life out of death.' 

Nor, crossing the seas, among those bird-islands of 
Peru, Bolivia, Patagonia, in which— barren, rainless, 



86 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



and, as they seem to man, useless — the fish-fed fowls 
of the ocean were accumulating for centuries a 
treasure-heap more precious than gold — millions 
upon millions of tons of rich manure, which has 
multiplied the food of nations throughout the civilised 
world, and still remains in immense abundance for 
us and generations after us. Guano, nevertheless, is 
not the manure for Roses. Its influence is quickly 
and prominently acknowledged by additional size 
and brightness of foliage,^ but the efflorescence, so 
far as my experiments have shown, derives no advan- 
tage as to vigour or beauty; and even on the leaf 
the effect is transitory. 

Nor in the guano of animal implume — not in the 
soil called ' night.' The Romans reverenced Cloacina, 
the goddess of the sewers, and the statue which they 
found of her in the great drains of Tarquinius was 
beautiful as Venus' self; but they honoured her, 
doubtless, only as a wise sanatory commissioner who 
removed their impurities, and, so doing, brought 
health to their heroes and loveliness to their maidens. 
They only knew half her merits; but in Olympus, we 
may readily believe, there was fuller justice done. 
Although weaker goddesses may have been unkind 

^ The Rev. W. F. Radclyfife strongly recommends saltpetre and 
nitrophosphate (blood) manure, as imparting a deeper, richer green to 
foliage. 



MANURES 87 

— may have averted their divine noses when Cloacina 
passed, and made ostentatious use of scent-bottle and 
pocket-handkerchief — Flora, and Pomona, and Ceres 
would ever admire her virtues, and beseech her benign 
influence upon the garden, the orchard, and the farm. 
But the terrestrials never thought that fcex tirbts 
might be lux orbis, and they polluted their rivers, as 
we ours, with that which should have fertilised their 
lands. And we blame the Romans very much indeed ; 
and we blame everybody else very much indeed; and 
we do hope the time will soon be here when such a 
sinful waste will no longer disgrace an enlightened 
age ; but beyond the contribution of this occasional 
homily, it is, of course, no affair of ours. Each man 
assures his neighbour that the process of dessication 
is quite easy, and the art of deodorising almost nice ; 
but nobody 'goes in/ The reader, I have no doubt, 
has with me had large experience of this perversity 
in neighbours, and ofttimes has been perplexed and 
pained by their dogged, strange reluctance to follow 
the very best advice. There was at Cambridge, some 
thirty years ago, an insolent, foul-mouthed, pugnacious 
sweep, who escaped for two terms the sublime licking 
which he * annexed* finally, because no one liked to 
tackle the soot. There were scores of undergraduates, 
to whom pugilism was a thing of beauty and a joy for 
ever, who had the power and the desire to punish his 



88 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



impudence, but they thought of the close wrestle, — 
they reflected on the ' hug/ and left him. To drop 
metaphor, there is no more valuable manure; but it 
is, from circumstances which require no explana- 
tion, more suitable for the farm than the garden, 
especially as we have a substitute, quite as effica- 
cious, and far more convenient and agreeable in 
use. 

No, not ^ burnt earth.' I spoke as earnestly as I 
could of the value of that application in my last 
chapter, because it is impossible in many cases to 
exaggerate its worth ; but I alluded at the same time 
to another indispensable addition which must be 
made to the soil of a Rose-garden, and now I will 
tell you what it is : I will tell you where I found the 
Philosopher's Stone in the words of that fable by 
^sop, which is, I think, the first of the series, and 
which was first taught to me in the French language, 
— ' Un coq^grattant sur un fttmier, trouvait par hazard 
une pierre pricieuse ; ' or, as it is written in our English 
version, ' a brisk young cock, in company with two or 
three pullets, his mistresses, raking upon a dunghill 
for something to entertain them with, happened to 
scratch up a jewel.' The little allegory is complete: 
I was the brisk young cock, my favourite pullet was 
the Rose, and in a heap of farmyard manure I found 
th^ treasure. 



MANURES 89 

Yes, here is the mine of gold and silver, gold medals 
and silver cups for the grower of prize Roses ; and to 
all who love them, the best diet for their health and 
beauty, the most strengthening tonic for their weak- 
ness, and the surest medicine for disease. ' Dear 
me ! ' exclaims some fastidious reader, ' what a nasty 
brute the man is ! He seems quite to revel in refuse, 
and to dance on his dunghill with delight!' The 
man owns to the soft impeachment. If the man had 
been a Roman emperor he would have erected the 
most magnificent temple in honour of Sterculus, 
the son of Faunus, that Rome ever saw. Because 
Sterculus, the son of Faunus — so Pliny tells — dis- 
covered the art and advantage of spreading dung 
upon the land ; and he should have appeared in the 
edifice dedicated to him, graven larger than life in 
pure gold, riding proudly in his family chariot, the 
currus Stercorostis {^Anglice, muck-cart), with the 
agricultural trident in his hand. As it is, I always 
think of him with honour when I meet the vehicle in 
which he loved to drive — have ever a smile of extra 
sweetness for the wide-mouthed waddling charioteer, 
and am pained at heart to find the precious com- 
modity fallen, or, as they say in Lancashire, ' slattered,' 
on the road. Ah ! but once that fastidious reader will 
be pleased to hear, the man brought himself to sore 
3hame and confusion by this wild, passionate affec- 



90 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

tion. Returning on a summer's afternoon from a 
parochial walk, I inferred from wheel-tracks on my 
carriage-drive that callers had been and gone. I 
expected to find cards in the hall, and I saw that the 
horses had kindly left theirs on the gravel. At that 
moment one of those 

^ Grim spirits in the air, 
Who grin to see us mortals grieve, 
And dance at our despair/ 

fiendishly suggested to my mind an economical 
desire to utilise the souvenir before me. I looked 
around and listened ; no sight, no sound of humanity. 
I fetched the largest fire-shovel I could find, and 
was carrying it bountifully laden through an arch- 
way cut in a high hedge of yews, and towards a 
favourite tree of ' Charles Lefebvre,' when I suddenly 
confronted three ladies, ^ who had sent round the 
carriage, hearing that I should soon be at home, 
and were admiring my beautiful Roses.' It may be 
said, with the strictest regard to veracity, that they 
saw nothing that day which they admired, in the 
primary meaning of the word, so much as myself 
and fire-shovel ; and I am equally sure that no Rose 
in my garden had a redder complexion than my 
own. 

And now, to be practical, what do I mean by 



MANURES 91 

farmyard manure — when and how should it be 
used ? 

By farmyard manure I mean all the manures of 
the straw-yard, solid and fluid, horse, cow, pig, 
poultry, in conjunction. Let a heap be made near 
the Rosarium, not suppressing the fumes of a 
natural fermentation by an external covering, but 
forming underneath a central drain, having lateral 
feeders, and at the lower end an external tank, 
after the fashion of those huge dinner-dishes whose 
channels carry to the ' well ' the dark gravies of the 
baron and the haunch (here that fastidious reader 
collapses, and is removed in a state of syncope), so 
that the rich extract, full of carbonate of ammonia, 
and precious as attar, may not be wasted, but may 
be used either as a liquid manure in the Rosary,^ 
or pumped back again to baste the beef. 

How long should it remain in the heap before 
it is fit for application to the soil ? The degree of 
decomposition to which farmyard dung should arrive 

^ The happy Rosarian who has a farmyard of his own, will, of 
course, have a large covered tank therein, for the reception and 
preservation of liquid manure. At all times, of drought especially, 
this will be more precious as a restorative and tonic to his Roses 
than the waters of Kissingen, Vichy, or Harrogate, to his invalid 
fellow-men. Only let him remember this rule of application — weak 
and oft, rather than strong and seldom. I bought my own experience 
by destroying with too potent potations, forgetting that infants don't 
drink brandy neat^ the delicate, fibrous rootlets of some beautiful 
Rose-trees on the Manetti stock, 



92 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

before it can be deemed a profitable manure, must 
depend on the texture of the soil, the nature of 
the plants, and the thne of its application.^ In 
general, clayey soils, more tenacious of moisture, 
and more benefited by being rendered incohesive 
and porous, may receive manure less decomposed 
than more pulverised soils required. Again, the 
season when manure is applied is also a material 
circumstance. 

I have made many experiments, but I have come 
back to the plan which I adopted first of all, and 
I believe it to be the best — namely, to give the 
Rose-trees a liberal stratum of farmyard manure in 
November, leaving it as a protection as well as a 
fertiliser through the winter months, and digging 
it in in March. For some years I manured the 
plants heavily in the spring, after hoeing or digging, 
and let the manure remain through the summer. 
This system succeeds in a very hot, dry season, but 
makes the ground sodden when the weather is wet, 
and at all times is an obstruction to the sunlight and 
the air. I therefore prefer the course which I have 
named, to be supplemented by liquid manure, 
or some slight surface-dressing of guano (that 
which comes from the dove-cot is still almost as 



1 See the article on Agriculture, * Encylopaedia Britannica,' ii. 300. 



MANURES 93 

precious as it was in the siege of Samaria) or bone- 
dust, when the buds are swelling into bloom ; so 
that, as the lanky schoolboy is placed upon a 
regimen of boiled eggs and roast-beef, Allsopp, 
Guinness, and Bass — so the Rose-trees (those 
nursing-mothers of such beautiful babes) may have 
good 'support' when they want it most. * It is 
believed/ writes Morton, 'by observers of nature, 
that plants do no injury to the soil while they are 
producing their stems and leaves, and that it is 
only when the blossom and the seed require 
nourishment that they begin to exhaust it/ 

A very effective surface-dressing was communi- 
cated to me many years ago by Mr. Rivers, who 
afterwards published it, as follows: — 'The most 
forcing stimulant that can be given to Roses is a 
compost formed of horse-droppings from the roads 
or stable ' (he says nothing about a fire-shovel), 
'and malt or kiln dust, to be obtained from any 
malt-kiln, equal quantities. This, well mixed, 
should then be spread out in a bed one foot thick, 
and thoroughly saturated with strong liquid manure, 
pouring it over the compost gently for, say, two 
days — so that it is gradually absorbed. The com- 
post is then fit for a summer surface-dressing, 
either for Roses in pots, in beds, or standard Roses. 
It should be applied, say, in April, and again in 



94 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

May and June, about an inch thick, in a circle 
round the tree, from 12 to 18 inches in diameter. 
This compost is not adapted for mixing with the 
soil that is placed among the roots, but is for a 
summer surface- dressing only ; and care must be 
taken that it is not placed in a heap or ridge after 
it has been viixed^for then fermentation is so violent 
that the smell becomes intolerable! 

So powerful is this confection, that I have found 
one application quite sufficient ; and this I apply, 
when the Rosebuds are formed and swelling, towards 
the end of May, or, in a late season, the beginning 
of June. I wait for the indications of rain, that 
the fertilising matter may be at once washed down 
to the roots ; and it never fails to act as quinine 
to the weakly, and as generous wine to the strong. 
During the extraordinary drought of the summer 
in 1868, I watched day after day — nay, week after 
week — with a patience worthy of that deaf old 
gentleman who listened for three months to catch 
the ticking of a sun-dial, or of him who undertook 
the tedious task of teaching a weather-cock to 
crow ; and at last, feeling sure of my shower, 
wheeled barrow after barrow with my own hands, 
not seeming to have time to call for help, over the 
little bridge, and spread it over the parched soil. 
Soon the big rain came dancing to the earth, and 



MANURES 95 

when it had passed, and I smoked my evening 
weed among the Rose-trees, I fancied that already 
the tonic had told. At all events, it is written in 
the chronicles of the Rose-shows how those Roses 
sped. 

Again, Mr. Rivers, whom I have just quoted, and 
to whom we must still give precedence, remembering 
what he has done in the Rosarium, writes : 'I have 
found night-soil, mixed with the drainings of the 
dunghill, or even with common ditch or pond water, 
so as to make a thick liquid, the best possible 
manure for Roses, poured on the surface of the 
soil twice in winter, from i to 2 gallons to each 
tree: December and January are the best months: 
the soil need not be stirred till spring, and then 
merely loosened 2 or 3 inches deep with the prongs 
of a fork. For poor soils, and on lawns, previously 
removing the turf, this v/ill be found more efficacious. 
Brewers' grains also form an excellent surface- 
dressing: they should be laid in a heap for two 
or three weeks to ferment, and one or two large 
shovelfuls placed round each plant, with some peat- 
charcoal to deodorise them, as the smell is not 
agreeable.' 

I will quote in alphabetical sequence the other 
distinguished public Rosarians who have expressed 
their opinions, or proved their skill at all events, 



96 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

in the matter. These are Mr. Cant of Colchester ; 
Mr. Cranston of Hereford; Mr. Francis of Hert- 
ford; Mr. Keynes of Salisbury; Mr. Lane of Berk- 
hampstead ; Mr. Mitchell of Piltsdown ; Mr. George 
Paul, the representative of Messrs. Paul & Son, 
Cheshunt ; Mr. William Paul, Waltham Cross ; 
Mr. Prince of Oxford ; Mr. Turner of Slough, and 
Messrs. Wood of Maresfield. There is, of course, 
a very large number of other nurserymen, who 
grow Roses most extensively and in their fullest per- 
fection — such as Bunyard at Maidstone, Dicksons 
at Chester, Dickson at Newtownards, Harkness at 
Bedale, Mack at Catterick, Merryweather at South- 
well, Mount at Canterbury, Smith at Worcester, 
Walters at Exeter, but I may not extend my 
quotations. 

Mr. Benjamin Cant, who, from his rich soil at 
Colchester, has produced a larger number of pre- 
eminent Roses than any other exhibitor, recommends 
that in planting Roses, a hole should be made about 
i8 inches deep, and large enough to contain half a 
wheelbarrowful of compost ; two-thirds of this should 
be strong turfy loam, and one-third well-decomposed 
animal manure. These should be thoroughly mixed 
together. 

Mr. Cranston writes in his ' Cultural Directions for 
the Rose,' which may be followed by am^ateurs with 



MANURES 97 

a sure confidence : ' I have found, after repeated 
trials for some years, that pig-dung is the best of 
all manures for Roses ; next night-soil, cow-dung, 
and horse-dung. These should stand in a heap from 
one to three months, but not sufficiently long to 
become exhausted of their ammonia and salts. 
Pig-dung should be put on the ground during 
winter or early spring, and forked in at once. In 
using night-soil, mix with burnt earth, sand, charcoal- 
dust, or other dry substance. Apply a small portion 
of the mixture to each plant or bed during winter, 
and let it be forked in at once. Soot is a good 
manure, especially for the Tea-scented and other 
Roses on their own roots; so are wood-ashes and 
charcoal. Bone-dust or half-inch bones forms an 
excellent and most lasting manure. Guano and 
superphosphate of lime are both good manure for 
Roses, but require to be used cautiously.' 

Mr. Keynes of Salisbury recommended ^ a good 
wheelbarrowful of compost — two-thirds good turfy 
loam, and one-third well-decomposed animal manure.' 
He adds — and the words of one whose Roses, in a 
favourable season, could not be surpassed in size 
or colour, should be remembered practically — * It is 
difficult to give the Rose too good a soil.' 

Mr. Lane of Berkhampstead writes thus : ' The 
best method of manuring beds is to dig in a good 



98 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

dressing of stable or other similar manure, this being 
the most safe from injuring vegetation in any soil, 
and it never does more good to Roses than when 
it is used as a surface-dressing. When placed, about 
two inches deep, over the surface in March, the 
ground seldom suffers from drought ; but this is, 
perhaps, by some considered unsightly.' 

Mr. George Paul, ' the hero of a hundred fights,* 
advises that ' in planting the ground should be 
deeply trenched, and well-rotted manure be plenti- 
fully added. If the soil be old garden-soil, add 
good loam, rich and yellow; choose a dry day for 
the operation, and leave the surface loose. Stake all 
standards, and mulch with litter, to protect the roots 
from frost.' 

Mr. William Paul, in his interesting work, ' The 
Rose-Garden,' gives, in the Introduction, the results 
of his experiments with manure. ' In the summer 
of 1842,' he writes, ' six beds of Tea- scented Roses 
were manured with the following substances: (i) bone- 
dust, (2) burnt earth, (3) nitrate of soda, (4) guano; 
(5) pigeon-dung, (6) stable manure, thoroughly de- 
composed. The soil in which they grew was an 
alluvial loam. The guano produced the earliest 
visible effects, causing a vigorous growth, which 
continued till late in the season ; the foliage was 
large and of the darkest green, but the flowers on 



MANURES 99 

this bed were not very abundant. The shoots did 
not ripen well, and were consequently much injured 
by frost during the succeeding winter. The bed 
manured with burnt earth next forced itself into 
notice ; the plants kept up a steadier rate of growth, 
producing an abundance of clear, well-formed 
blossoms ; the wood ripened well, and sustained 
little or no injury from the winters frost. The 
results attendant on the use of the other manures 
were not remarkable : they had acted as gentle 
stimulants, the nitrate of soda and bones least 
visibly so, although they were applied in the 
quantities usually recommended by the vendors. 
. . . I think burnt and charred earth the best 
manure that can be applied to wet or adhesive soils.' 

Mr. Prince says : ' My plants on the cultivated 
Seedling Brier do not require so much manuring 
as other forms of stocks. I do not recommend 
any manure at time of planting, unless the ground 
has been greatly impoverished by trees and shrubs 
or Roses, in which case a portion of the soil should 
be removed, and a fresh supply given, which should 
consist of the top-spit from a meadow of heavy 
loam, well decayed ; but it should not be forgotten 
that after the Roses have been planted for two 
years, and are well established, they will require a 
liberal supply of manure. I have found that the 



lOO 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



worst attack of mildew first made its appearance 
on young plants in land which had been manured 
at the time of planting/ 

Mr. Turner of Slough does not show his cards, 
but when he comes to play them on the green 
cloth or baize of the exhibition-table, no man 
deals more fairly, knows the game more thoroughly, 
holds more trumps, or scores the honours more 
frequently. 

Messrs. Wood of Maresfield, at one time the 
largest growers of the Rose in the world, commend 
a mixture of well-seasoned animal manure, with 
the top-spit of an old pasture, deep trenching, 
thorough draining, and a free use of the pruning- 
knife the first year after planting. 

Concluding this long chapter, I would earnestl}^ 
assure the novice in Rose-growing that there is 
only one exception (and that in Egypt) to the 
rule. Ex nihilo nihil fit. If he really means to 
make the Rose his hobby, and to enjoy the ride, 
he must feed him liberally and regularly with old 
oats and beans. The Rose cannot be grown in its 
glory without frequent and rich manure ; and again, 
I recommend that the best farmyard dung be applied 
towards the end of November, when the ground is 
dry and dug in in March, and that the surface- 
dressing prescribed by Mr. Rivers, or some other 



MANURES 



lOI 



stimulant, be administered at the beginning of June. 
And if neighbours, who are not true lovers of the 
Rose, expostulate, and condemn the waste, quote 
for their edification those true words of Victor 
Hugo, in ' Les Mis^rables,' ' the beautiful is as 
useftd as the useful, perhaps more so' 

Nevertheless, I must warn the young Rosarian 
that he may be too lavish in his application of 
manures. The enthusiastic tyro has been known 
to plant his Rose-trees in a composition, made 
up half and half, of raw reeking manure and soil. 
The results have been disastrous ; and when an 
explanation of the debility outside has been sought 
within the soil, it has been sadly seen that the 
little tender rootlets have been sore let and hindered 
by their rank unsavoury surroundings, and have made 
but a feeble growth. 

Nor must the amateur keep the sunshine and 
the rain from the soil by covering it continuously 
with solid manures. One liberal application from 
the farmyard, laid on late in November or early in 
December (when the first frost makes a hard road 
for the wheelbarrow), and dug in about the middle 
of March, is ample, with the addition of some 
fertilising liquid, when the buds expand for efflor- 
escence, and some slight thin mulching in times 
of excessive drought. 



102 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



The novice must not expect that his Roses will 
always maintain their integrity even in the kindliest 
of soils, and with a most anxious and clever cultiva- 
tion. Sooner or later they will deteriorate, and 
must be replaced by a younger and stronger 
growth from the nurseries or the budding-ground. 

Nay, the time must come, when the soil itself 
will give manifest intimations that in horticulture 
as in agriculture it is expedient to change our 
crops ; and he who would maintain his supremacy 
as a Rosarian must seek 'fields fresh and pastures 
new/ 

I exhausted three Rose-gardens of considerable 
extent, and should have joyfully continued the 
process of exhaustion, had I not reached my 
boundaries, satisfied my ambition as an exhibitor, 
and become more and more inclined to distribute 
my admirations among the manifold beauties of 
the garden, rather than to concentrate all my devo- 
tions upon the Rose. Of course, she was to remain 
for ever my Sovereign Lady, the Queen. 

We have found our situation, we have prepared 
our soil ; we will speak now of the arrangement 
of the Rosarium, and then of the Rose itself. 



CHAPTER VII 



ARRANGEMENT 

Every gardener must be an infidel — I am, and 
I glory in the fact — on the subject of infidelity. 
The proofs and the precepts of natural and revealed 
religion are brought so frequently and impressively 
before him, that he cannot believe in unbelief. He 
takes a seed, a bulb, a cutting (who made them ?) ; 
he places them in the soil which is most congenial 
(who made it?); the seed germinates, the bulb 
spindles, the cutting strikes (whence the motive 
power ?) ; he tends and waters (but who sends the 
former and the latter rain ?) ; and the flower comes 
forth in glory. Does he say, with the proud 
Assyrian, * By the strength of my hand I have done 
it, and by my wisdom ' ? Does he not stand the 
rather, with a reverent wonder, to consider the 
Lilies (the Auratum, it may be, the glowing 
Amaryllid,' the Pancratium, the Arum, or the 
lovely Eucharis, in robes pure and white as a 
martyr's), until the very soul within him rises heaven- 

103 



io4 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

ward, and Manus Tucb fecerunt is his psalm of 
praise ? 

And the truths of Revelation, the histories and 

the prophecies of the Older Testament, the miracles 

and parables of the New, are taught as constantly 

and as clearly to the gardener in his daily life. In 

our gardens always 

* There is a book, who runs may read, 
Which heavenly truth imparts ' — 

ever reminding us of that Eden wherein were all 
things pleasant to the eye and good for food ; of 
Gethsemane, and of that garden where our crucified 
Lord was laid. What is our love of flowers, our 
calm happiness in our gardens, but a dim recollection 
of our first home in paradise, and a yearning for the 
Land of Promise ! Here in the wilderness we love 
. to reclaim these green spots from the brier and 
thorn ; to fence and to cleanse ; to plant and sow ; 
to sit at eventide, when work is done, every man 
under his vine and under his fig-tree, with thank- 
fulness and hope. 

With hope, because these our gardens — scenes 
though they be of brightest beauty to our eyes, and 
sources of our purest joys — do not satisfy, are not 
meant to satisfy, our heart's desire. Perishable as 
we ourselves, for the grass withereth, the flower 
fadeth, they are, moreover, like all our handiwork, 



ARRANGEMENT 105 

deformed by fault and flaw. Did you ever meet 
a gardener who, however fair his ground, was 
absolutely content and pleased? Did you never 
hear * O si angulus ille ! ' from the lord of many 
fields? Is there not always a tree to be felled or 
a bed to be turfed ? Does not somebody's chimney, 
or somebody's ploughed field, persist in obtruding 
its ugliness ? Is there not ever some grand mistake 
to be remedied next summer ? Alas ! the florist 
never is, but always to be blessed with a perfect 
garden : and to him, as to all mankind, perfect 
happiness is that ^ gay to-morrow of the mind, which 
never comes.' 

These imperfections and mistakes, of course, arise 
in our gardens mainly from our own ignorance or 
indolence ; and as sterility, feebleness, and premature 
decay are caused not by tree, plant, weather, soil, 
but by wrong treatment, position, neglect ; so all 
unsightly combinations — poverty or excess of objects 
brought together, rigidity, monotony, ungracefulness 
— originate not from the materials at our disposal, 
but from the manner in which we dispose them. 
And in this matter of arrangement we are at the 
present day conspicuously weak. Never was the 
gardener so rich in resources. Our collectors, hazard- 
ing their lives, and losing them, in their work of 
love, have gained us treasures from every clime. 



io6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

Sadly, like some cemetery tree, does the beautiful 
Douglas Pine remind us of him whose name it bears, 
who sent it to adorn our homes, and who, searching 
for fresh prizes, perished miserably, falling into a 
pit dug by the Sandwich Islanders for the capture 
of wild bulls, and gored to death by one of them. 
The lovely Lycaste speaks to us sorrowfully of 
George Ure Skinner ; and the most striking of the 
Marantas {Veitchu\ the velvety Begonia Pearcei^ 
with its golden flowers, the exquisite Gymnostachium, 
and splendid Sanchezia, of Richard Pearce — both 
of whom died in their harness. These and others 
have amplified our shining stores ; while our florists 
at home, by selection, culture, cross-breeding, and 
hybridising, have made admirable improvements and 
large additions in every department of their art. 
The gardener, nevertheless, with all this wealth and 
skill, fails signally, in my eyes, as to the laying out 
of his garden. He fails, because he has to a great 
extent abandoned the English or natural system 
for the Italian and Geometrical, because he must 
have a sensational garden in spring, summer, and 
winter. His ancestors — poor floral fogies ! — looked 
upon their gardens as quiet resting-places, fair scenes 
of refreshment and of health ; and, wandering amid 
these ^ haunts of ancient peace,' they loved the cool 
grot for contemplation made, or the sunny walk 



ARRANGEMENT 107 

through the glossy evergreens in which the throstle 
sang. They welcomed their flowers as He sent them 
who ' hath made everything beautiful in His time ' : 
they did not upbraid Nature, nor essay to wake her 
when she slept her winter sleep ; they forgave her 
deciduous trees. They followed her in all things 
as their teacher. They copied her lines, which were 
rarely straight, rarely angular ; and her surfaces, 
which were rarely flat. Said to me a house-painter, 
whom I watched and praised as he was cleverly 
graining one of my doors in imitation of oak, * Well, 
sir, I must say I do think myself, that Fm following 
up Natur' close,' and he ran his thumb-nail up a 
panel swiftly, as though he would catch her by the 
heel. So did they reproduce her graceful features. 
* It is the peculiar happiness of the age' (this was 
written in 1755) *to see just and noble ideas brought 
into practice, peculiarities banished, prospects opened, 
the country called in. Nature rescued and improved, 
and Art decently concealing itself under her own 
productions.' * I am now,' wrote the Czarina to 
Voltaire in the year 1772, * wildly in love with the 
English system of gardening, its waving lines and 
gentle declivities ; ' and so was all the gardening 
world. Sixty years later, in my own childhood, 
there were in the garden, before me as I write, — and 
now little more than one subdivided flower-bed, — 



io8 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

those bowers and meandering walks, many a pleasant 
nook, where the aged might rest, young men and 
maidens sigh their love, and happy children play. 
Ah, what delicious facilities for ' I spy ' and for 
* hide-and-seek,' where now there is but scant con- 
cealment for the furtive hungry cat ! What lookings 
into eyes, what approximations of lips, where now 
it would be 'bragian' boldness to squeeze a body's 
hand ! I look through the window, and I see the 
place where, under drooping branches, we children 
were enthroned as kings and queens ; where we 
entertained ambassadors with surreptitious food ; 
where in my ninth year I was crowned with laurel 
(the only bit of reality) as the great poet of my day ; 
and where, for brilliant service, I was knighted scores 
of times, on my return from India, with the handle 
of our garden-rake ! I see the place — it was hidden 
behind the yew-trees then — where we were so often 
shipwrecked upon * Desert Island,' and where my 
youngest sister would never be induced to have her 
face adequately grimed for the performance of man 
Friday ! I look — but I can see no more ! * A flood 
of thoughts comes o'er me, and fills mine eyes with 
tears.' The playmates of my youth — where are 
they ? O doleful memories ! O blissful hopes ! O 
dreadful earthly darkness ! O dazzling heavenly 
light ! The morning cometh, as also the night. 



ARRANGEMENT 109 

But what do I see, as the mist clears? A 
garden which, Hke a thousand others, has obeyed 
the command of imperious Fashion, — Away with 
your borders, your mounds, and your clumps ! 
Away with walks and with grottoes, nooks, corners, 
and light and shade ! Down with your timber ! To 
the rubbish-heap with your lilacs and almonds, your 
laburnums and blossoming trees ! Stub, lay bare, 
level and turf ; then cover the whole by line and 
measure with a geometrical design.^ Do you require 
examples ? Copy your carpet, or the ornaments on 
your pork-pie. Then purchase or provide — for the 
spring. Bulbs by the sack ; for the summer. Pelar- 
goniums by the million ; for the winter, baby Ever- 
greens and infant Conifers — brought prematurely 
from the nursery into public life, like too many 
of our precocious children — by the waggon-load ; 
introducing among the latter, narrow little walks of 
pounded cockle-shells, broken glass, gypsum, brick- 
dust, sheep's trotters, etc., etc. 

I am well aware that the geometrical system, 
especially when it is combined with terraces, stair- 
cases, balustrades, and edgings of stones, is very 

^ With wise instructions from the best (in my opinion) of our 
landscape gardeners, Mr. Marnock, and with very kindly help from 
my friends Mr. William Robinson and Mr. Ingram of Belvoir, I 
restored and reclothed the plot of ground about my home, which was, 
and is once more again — a garden. 



no A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

effective and appropriate around our palaces, castles, 
and other stately homes. For these it forms a 
beautiful floor and fringe. It prevents too sudden 
a transition from architecture to horticulture,^ With 
the pleasure-grounds around opening upon the park, 
and with the general landscape in the distance 
beyond, the amalgamation of art and nature is 
excellent. Nor do I deny for a moment that in 
all gardens, if introduced in modest and due pro- 
portion, it is the most becoming framework for our 
summer flowers ; but my complaint is, that this giant 
Geometry has taken possession of our small gardens 
not as an ally, but as an autocrat — ejecting old 
tenants and dismissing old servants like some heart- 
less conceited heir, extruding them disdainfully, as 
the usurping cuckoo thrusts the eggs from a 
sparrow's nest. Just as that sensational system of 
gardening which goes by the name of * Bedding- 
Out,' has expelled in so many instances our beautiful 
herbaceous plants and our lovely flowering shrubs, 
so the geometrical style has destroyed too frequently 

^ 'His* (Sir C. Barry's) 'idea was, that the definite artificial lines 
of a building should not be contrasted, but harmonised, with the free 
and careless grace of natural beauty. This could only be effected by 
a scheme of architectural gardens, graduated, as it were, from regular 
formality in the immediate neighbourhood of the building itself, 
through shrubberies and plantations, less and less artificial, till they 
seemed to melt away in the unstudied simplicity of the park or wood 
without.' — 'Memoir of Sir C. Barry,' by his Son, p. 113. 



ARRANGEMENT 



III 



a more natural grace, wearying the eye instead of 
refreshing it. Some may Hke to see the hair pulled 
back from a winsome face, or twisted in fantastic 
forms : give me ripples of light in the wavelike braid, 
and reliefs of shade in the glossy clustering curls. 

True art hides itself, and every man in laying out 
a garden should remember the precept, Ars est celare 
artem. He should, moreover, cause to be painted on 
his case of mathematical instruments, and printed 
largely on the cover of his sketch-book, those two 
lines, written by a true gardener and poet (must not 
every true gardener be a poet, though it may be of 
songs without words ?) — 

* He wins all points, who pleasingly confounds, 
Surprises, varies, and conceals the bounds.'^ 

But what, it may be asked, has all this to do with 
the Rosary ? And I answer. Everything ; because 
nowhere is the formal, monotonous, artificial system 
of arrangement more conspicuously rampant. It 
almost seems, in some cases, as though the owners 
had copied the methodical Frenchman, who, having 
received an assortment of Rose-trees of various 
heights from the nursery— standards, half-standards, 
and dwarfs — planted them all at the same distance 

^ I recommend to those of my readers who are interested in this 
subject, * The English Flower-Garden : its Style, Position, and 
Arrangement.' By W. Robinson, and others. London; J. Murray. 



112 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



above the ground, that he might preserve the unities 
of an even surface. Does not a dead level, bearing 
the old pattern of stars and garters, generally encircle 
the Rose-temple, over which the disgusted right- 
minded Rose-trees always object to grow? It looks 
like a dismal aviary from which the birds have flown ; 
but with a little bright paint and gilding externally, 
and a loud barrel-organ within, it might form a 
brilliant lucrative centre-piece for a merry-go-round 
at a fair. 

When the Rose is grown for exhibition exclusively, 
the geometrical system in its simplest form, and 
minus the temple, is desirable, as being most con- 
venient to him who purposely sacrifices beauty of 
arrangement as regards the general appearance, the 
tout ensemble, of his Rose-garden, that he may attain 
perfection as to size and colour in the individual 
flowers. He cannot afford space for numerous 
varieties, which, lovely, distinct, and indispensable 
in the general collection, are not suitable for the 
exhibition stage. He admires them earnestly, but 
has only room for them in his heart or with his 
herbaceous plants in *the borders.' He must have 
all his trees so disposed that they may be readily 
surveyed, approached, and handled. Specimens of 
the same variety must be planted together, that he 
may quickly compare and select. Time is most 




Marechal Niel at the Villa Zirio, San Remo. 



Arrangement itj 

precious on the morning of a show; and returning 
to the boxes with a bloom in each hand and a 
couple between one's teeth, it is a sore hindrance to 
remember another tree at the farthest point of the 
Rosary, which possibly carries the best bloom of all. 
Taste in arrangement consists with the exhibitor in 
the harmonious grouping of his cut Roses, not in 
the gracefulness of his ground or of his trees. He 
appeals not to the general public, but to the con- 
noisseur ; not to the court,^ but to the judge. 

In a Rose-garden not subject to any such restraint 
— not the drill-ground of our Queen's Body-guard, 
but the holiday assemblage of Her people — no 
formalism, no flatness, no monotonous repetition 
should prevail. There should the Rose be seen in 
all her multiform phases of beauty. There should 
be beds of Roses, banks of Roses, bowers of Roses, 
hedges of Roses, edgings of Roses, pillars of Roses, 
arches of Roses, fountains of Roses, baskets of Roses, 
vistas and alleys of the Rose. Now overhead and 
now at our feet, there they should creep and climb. 
New tints, new forms, new perfumes, should meet us 
at every turn. Here we come upon a bed of seed- 

^ A Lancaishire witness hearing words ascribed to him by a con- 
ceited young barrister (with a new wig and a turned-up nose) which 
he had not spoken, jumped up and wrathfully protested, 'Why, 
yer powder-yedded monkey, I never said note o' th' sort — I appeal 
to th* company 1 ' 

II 



114 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

lings so full of interest and of hope. Here is the 
sunny spot where we gather, like Virgil's shepherd, 
the first Rose of spring, or 

* Rosa quo locorum 
Sera moretur,' 

the last of autumn. Art is here as the meek admir- 
ing handmaid of Nature, gently smoothing her 
beautiful hair, checking only such growth as would 
weaken her flowing ringlets, but never daring to 
disfigure with shams and chignons — with pagodas, 
I mean, and such like tea-garden trumpery. Art is 
here to obey, but not to dictate — to work as one 
who counts such service its own reward and honour. 
If before the Fall, before the earth brought forth 
brier or thorn, man was put into a garden to dress 
it and to keep it, with his will and with his might 
must he labour now in that plot of ground where he 
fain would realise his fond idea of Eden. He must 
work hard, but only as one who copies some great 
masterpiece — not as one who designs, but restores. 
He must keep order, but only as replacing an 
arrangement which he has himself disturbed. Thus 
and thus only he may hope to make himself a 
garden 

^ Where order in variety we see, 
And where, though all things differ, all agree.^ 



ARRANGEMENT 115 

Were it my privilege to lay out an extensive Rose- 
garden, I should desire a piece of broken natural 
ground, surrounded on all sides but the south with 
sloping banks, ^ green and of mild declivity,' on which 
evergreen shrubs should screen and beautify by 
contrast the Roses blooming beneath ; and in the 
centre I should have, at irregular intervals, Rose-clad 
mounds high enough to obstruct the view even of 
Arba, great among the Anakims, which would enable 
me to surprise, to vary, and to conceal, according to 
the golden rule which I have before quoted. On the 
level from which these mounds arose would be the 
beds and single specimens ; at the corners my bowers 
and nooks. All the interior space not occupied by 
Roses should be turf — ^ nothing,' writes Lord Bacon, 
' is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept 
finely shorn ' — and this always broad enough for the 
easy operations of the mowing-machine, and for the 
ample robes (although the Queen of Flowers is 
graciously pleased to dispense with trains, when 
ladies attend her receptions) of those bright visitors, 
the only beings upon earth more beautiful than the 
Rose itself 

And who can be jealous ? Who can grudge them 
the universal homage which, even in the queenly 
presence, they always claim and win? More than 
once, I must confess, has a remonstrance risen to my 



ii6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

Hps which I have not dared to utter. I remember 
sitting on a summer's eve contemplating my Roses in 
the soft hght of the setting sun, and in the society 
of a sentimental friend, more than ever sentimental 
because a daughter of the gods, divinely fair, had 
just left us for the house. We sat still and pensive, 
until at last I broke a long silence with the 
involuntary exclamation, ^ Aren't they lovely ? ' 
* Lovely ! ' he replied ; ^ I hate 'em. She called that 
Due de Rohan a duck, and that Senna Tea Vaisse, 
or whatever his name is ' (he knew it as well as I did), 
*a darling. I tell you what, old fellow, if either of 
these worthies could appear in the flesh, there is 
nothing in the world I should like so much as a tete- 
a-tete with him in a 24-foot ring. I flatter myself 
that I could favour him with a facer which he couldn't 
obtain in France. As for that General Jacqueminot, 
shouldn't I like to meet him in action ' — here he 
pulled his moustache fiercely — * and to roll him over 
on Rupert ? ' (his charger). I bade him light a weed 
and hope ; but he didn't seem to relish hoping. 
Towards the end of the next summer he came to 
see me again, with the daughter of the gods in his 
brougham, and, on the opposite side, in the lap of its 
nurse, a new ^ duck,' far dearer to his bride than any 
rosebud on earth. 

The inner walks should be grass, but there must 



ARRANGEMENT 117 

be an outer promenade of gravel, smooth and dry for 
the thinnest boots, when the turf is damp with rain 
or dew. 

I would have the approaches to a Rosary made 
purposely obscure and narrow, that the visitor may 
come with a sudden gladness and wonder upon the 
glowing scene, as the traveller by rail emerges from 
the dark tunnel into the brightness of day and a fair 
landscape ; or, as some dejected whist-player finds, at 
the extremity of wretched cards, the ace, king, and 
queen of trumps ! I should like to conduct the 
visitors to my Rosarium between walls of rock-work, 
thickly set with those unassuming but exquisite 
Alpine plants, of which my friend, Mr Robinson, to 
whose book on Arrangement I just now referred, has 
given us such a complete and charming history,^ 
or through high fern-covered banks ; and, by a 
sudden turn at the end of our avenue, to dazzle him 
into an ecstasy. He should feel as Kane the 
explorer did, when after an Arctic winter he saw the 
sun shine once more, and ^ felt as though he were 
bathing in perfumed waters.' 

Although water offered itself in a fair running 
stream for introduction into the Rose-garden, I should 
hesitate timidly as to its admission. Charming as it 

1 'Alpine Flowers.' London: Murray. 



ii8 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

would be to see the Roses reflected, like Narcissus, in 
such a mirror — to muse upon beauty, like Plato 
beneath the planes which grew by the waters of 
Ilissus — we should simultaneously strengthen the 
cruel power of our fiercest enemy, frost. Let us 
content ourselves with cisterns for soft water, with 
pumps, syringes, and guttapercha tubes. 

I must not finish my harangue on arrangement 
until I have answered a question often asked, * Where 
the space devoted to Roses is too limited for the 
diversity of forms in which the Rose may be grown, 
what form do you consider the best ? * There can be 
no debate nor doubt in replying, * The most attractive, 
abundant, and abiding system upon which you can 
grow Roses, is to plant them in beds (remembering 
all I have said about soil and situation), upon their 
own roots, or budded upon dwarf stocks (I will tell 
you which is best by and by), and then to treat them 
thus : — Plant in November, and, in the following 
summer, promote all possible growth. In the ensuing 
spring, the long, strong shoots, only shortened 4 or 5 
inches (all weakly produce being excised), must be 
very gently and gradually bent down to earth, and 
secured with thick wooden hooks, cut from the trees 
and hedgerows, two or three to each lateral branch. 
These branches will not only flower early and late, 
but, if well treated, will make robust wood in the 



ARRANGEMENT 119 

summer and autumn, which (the older branches being 
removed) will be pegged down in the following 
spring ; and so we shall have annually a continuous 
renovation. It is difficult to deflect some of sturdy 
growth, such as the Baroness Rothschild ; but he 
will touch tenderly who loves truly, and his unhappy 
fractures will be few. In two years these beds 
will be densely covered with flowers and foliage ; 
and the contrasted beauty of La France and 
Lefebvre, Marie Finger and Marie Beauman, Mer- 
veille de Lyons and Louis Van Houtte, Mrs. 
Marguerite Dickson and Xavier Olibo, Duke of 
Wellington and Madame Gabriel Luizet, will dazzle 
the eye and bewilder the brain of the fondest of all 
lovers — of him who loves the Rose. 

This method of growing Roses might be amplified 
to any extent by those who had the desire and the 
means, beds being planted not only with mixed 
varieties for contrast, but with a dozen or score plants 
of the same Rose. Were these tastefully arranged 
and carefully tended, we should have a Rose-garden 
as attractive to the general visitor as it would be 
interesting to the student, and convenient to the 
exhibitor of Roses ; but this process is tedious, requir- 
ing a constant supervision ; and, where there is not 
time for a watchful and frequent manipulation, it will 
be wiser to abstain from the system of pegging, and 



I20 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



to grow dwarf roses in beds of mixed, or the same, 
varieties, placing those of most robust habit in the 
centre, and pruning accordingly.^ 

Let us now consider, collectively and individually, 
the various families of this our royal flower, that we 
may invite those members whom we may esteem 
most worthy to be guests at our feast of Roses. 

^ I have seen dwarf Rose-trees effectively trained on wires stretched 
over the beds, but it seems disloyal to bind our Queen in chains, and 
her nobles in links of iron. 



CHAPTER VIII 

SELECTION 

Take a hot schoolboy into a fruiterer's shop, where 
the cheeks of the peach and the Quarrenden pippin 
are glowing like his own, where the bloom still 
lingers upon grape and plum, and where the * Good 
Christian' pear of Williams (would that all who 
assure us of their sanctity were as free from sourness, 
as fruitful and refreshing !) yields to his inquiring 
thumb. Bid him survey the scene, a pomological 
Selkirk, and then proceed to fruition. Or take young 
Philippos, a few years older, to some great mart of 
horses. Introduce him to the proprietor, with his 
pleasant smiling face, ruddy (from early rising, doubt- 
less), his cheek and chin close-shaven (few men 
nowadays shave so closely), hair clipped like his 
horses', fox galloping over bird's-eye neckerchief, 
cut-away coat with gilt buttons, and drab adhesive 
pants. Let him hear how this generous, guileless 
man has collected, without regard to toil or money, 
the best horses in all Europe, solely for the pleasure 



122 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

of distributing them at nominal prices among his 
favourites and friends. Oh, ecstasy ! * the young 
gentleman ' is permitted to know that he is himself a 
member of that blissful band — a Knight of Arthur's 
Table. The good dealer has *just such another 
young un of his own/ and will forthwith exhibit 
to his counterpart a splendid series of steeds, on 
which his lad has won the principal steeplechases, 
and led the clippingest runs of the season. How 
their coats shine as the neat clothing glides smoothly 
from their glossy quarters ! How they snort as they 
leave their stalls! How proudly they elevate (I 
disdain that puny monosyllable, cock) their trim-cut, 
well-combed tails ; and how genially the good dealer 
whispers to the young gentleman, with a kindly 
nudge and wink, ^That's about all you'll let the field 
see of him, if you buys him, and gets a start ! ' And 
suppose at this juncture you also whisper in the other 
ear, * Try them, and take your choice.' 

Or go with his pretty sister to some jeweller's 
glittering store. Let him display to eyes far brighter 
than his diamonds, and with a tender grace of 
manipulation which tells how costly is his ware, 
casket after casket of lustrous gems. Then invite 
her to select her suite. Or take her to some gay 
emporium, repository, lounge, bazaar, or mart — woe 
to the man who shall cry ^shop ' therein, for fifty 



SELECTION 123 

pairs of angry scissors would find swift way to his 
heart ! — where, behind acres of plate-glass, and upon 
miles of counter, the rich thick silk stands up in 
pyramids, and the delicate aristocratic satin gleams 
like an opal. Ask the shopman (I beg pardon, the 
employ6s^ or the aides-de-camp^ or whatever may be 
their modern title ^) to educe their newest, most 
recherche robes, and beseech of Venus to choose. 

Will there not be in these cases a delicious 
perplexity, an ecstasy of amazement, an embarrass- 
ment of riches ? Imagine to yourself this happy 
hesitation, and you will know something of my 
present sweet uncertainty. How am I to begin my 
selection of Roses ? It seems as though, gazing upon 
an illuminated city, I was asked to point out the 
brightest candles ; as though, where fireflies gleamed 
by the million, and humming-birds glowed by the 
thousand, I was ordered to transfix with the entomo- 
logical pin the brightest specimens of the one, and 
to adjust upon the ornithological wires the most 
exquisite examples of the other. 

As to any scientific arrangement, ethnological, 
genealogical, or physiological classification, I am 
helplessly, hopelessly incapable. I have as * poor 

^ A lady, calling to rectify a mistake at one of our great inagasins les 
modes^ was asked, * Was it a tall gentleman wilh a dark moustache 
who was with you ? * and replied, * No ; it was a stout nobleman, 
about five feet high, with a squint.* 



124 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

brains ' for these studies as Cassio for strong drinks. 
The very words make my head ache, and I long to 
break them up, as one breaks up, in wintry days, 
some big black coal with a poker. ' I am no 
botanist,* as the young Oxonian pleaded to the 
farmer who reproved him for riding over wheat. I 
confess that I failed miserably in an attempt to 
understand the rudiments of his science, as set forth 
in Dr. Lindley's * School Botany.' I honour him, but 
I do not envy, because, strange as it may seem, he is 
very rarely an enthusiastic gardener ; because I never 
remember to have seen a scientific botanist and a 
successful practical florist under the same hat. 
Wherefore I am content, when I put on my own, to 
confess meekly that it covers a skull void and empty 
of scientific treasures, but the property, I trust, of a 
true gardener. 

But how am I to begin with the Roses ? I fancy 
that I hear a hiss or two, a shuffling of impatient 
shoes, as when too much preliminary fiddling goes on 
before the play. And here, positively, in the very 
crisis and nick of time, my doubt is dissolved ; the 
knot is cut eirl ^vp(a Tvxrj^y upon the razor-edge of good 
luck, and by an incident which sounds like a miracle. 
T/ie Rose makes answer for itself. Yes, biting my 
quill, and beginning to think that the more I bite the 
nearer I draw to the stupidity of the bird which grew 



SELECTION 125 

it, I hear an intermittent tapping on the panes of 
a window near. I am not startled, because this 
identical tapping has been going on for a good many- 
years, whenever winds are high : but as I look up 
and see the cause, it seems to bring new sounds to 
my ears — a spirit raps distinctly on the glass, ^ Begin 
with us, the 

Climbing Roses.' 

I obey at once the legate of my Queen. I lose no 
time in stating that the best Climbing Rose with 
which I am acquainted is that which has just 
announced itself, Gloire de Dijon, commonly classed 
with the Tea-scented China Roses, but more closely 
resembling the Noisette family in its robust growth 
and hardy constitution. Planted against a wall 
having a southern or eastern aspect, it grows, when 
once fairly established, with a wonderful luxuriance. 
I have just measured a lateral on one of my trees, 
and of the last year's growth, and found it to be 19 
feet in length, and the bole of another tree at the 
base to be nearly 10 inches in circumference. The 
latter grows on the chancel-wall of my church, and 
has often had three hundred flowers upon it in full 
and simultaneous bloom ; nor will the reader desire 
to arraign me for superstitious practices before a 
judicial committee when he hears that to this Rose 
I make daily obeisance, because in passing into my 



126 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

church I must duck to preserve my eyesight/^ The 
two trees alluded to are on their own roots, but the 
Rose thrives stoutly on the Brier and the Manetti, 
budded and grafted, wherever Roses grow. Its 
flowers are the earliest and latest ; it has symmetry, 
size, endurance, colour (five tints are given to it 
in the Rose catalogues — buff, yellow, orange, fawn, 
salmon, and it has them all), and perfume. It is 
what cricketers call an 'all-rounder,' good in every 
point for wall, arcade, pillar, standard, dwarf, en 
masse^ or as a single tree. It is easy to cultivate out 
of doors and in. It forces admirably, and you may 
have it, almost in its summer beauty, when Christmas 
snows are on the ground. With half-a-dozen pots of 
it carefully treated, and half-a-dozen trees in your 
garden, you may enjoy it all the year round ; and if 
ever, for some heinous crime, I were miserably 
sentenced, for the rest of my life, to possess but a 
single Rose-tree, I should desire to be supplied, on 
leaving the dock, with a strong plant of Gloire de 
Dijon. 

1 This tree passed through a severe ordeal, during the restora- 
tion of my church. As it was necessary to rebuild the greater part 
of the wall on which it grew, I dared not hope its preservation; 
but the architect, Mr. Christian, was an admirer of Roses, and the 
clerk of the works, Mr. Dick, was an admirer of Roses, and under 
their auspices the dear old favourite was carefully removed from the 
stonework, protected by a temporary wooden case, and finally replaced 
in safety. 



SELECTION 127 

As to treatment, although this Rose, like some 
thoroughbred horse, will do its work with little 
grooming and scanty fare, it well repays that 
generous diet which I have previously prescribed. 
In pruning, take away all weakly wood, and you 
may then deal with the strong as you please. If 
you want to increase the height of your tree, *cut 
boldly,' as said the Augur, and low. If you desire 
short flowering laterals, you may have them, a 
dozen on a shoot, or from as many * eyes ' as you 
like to leave on it. 

There are two Roses, I am well aware — two 
sisters of this same ^ most divinely tall ' family — 
more beautiful, if you compare the individual flowers, 
than that which I have preferred before them. When 
we held our third National Rose Show in the Crystal 
Palace at Sydenham — the first of those exhibitions 
which have since been so popular in that grand 
creation of a gardener's genius — I remember that 
some of us were made almost angry by the excessive 
share of admiration received by one of these Roses. 
An anxious eager crowd jumped and jostled to get 
a view of it, reckless of each other's corns. I heard 
a remark from one visitor to another, a short man 
behind him, who seemed, I must say, about to 
clamber up the speaker's back,— Pardon me, sir, 
but may I remind you that we are not playing 



128 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



at leap-frog?' What were they all struggling to 
see? There were long lines of lovely Roses — why 
this pressure always at this special spot? It was 
just as when, in our Royal Academy, and on the 
first days of exhibition, the visitors all make for 
one particular corner, because there hangs, so the 
Times has told them, the picture of the year ; or as 
when, so eye-witnesses say, the ladies at a Drawing- 
Room, apprehensive that Her Majesty is about to 
appoint a Royal Deputy, press towards the Throne 
Room, with a vigorous zeal, which, while it suggests 
great physical power and mental purpose in their 
descendants, is hardly consistent with the graceful 
dignity, the unselfish courtesy and forbearance 
which we associate with noble and gentle birth. 
There is a manifestation of obtrusive vigour, which 
would quickly evoke in an ordinary crowd the angry 
protest, * Now^ missus^ zvhere be you a-shoving ? ' 
And what was the Rose? It was Cloth-of-Gold 
Noisette — a box of it, sent by Mr. W. Cant, from 
the neighbourhood of Colchester. Well, the most 
jealous could not dispute its supreme beauty. It 
was certainly the belle of the ball. In its integrity, 
it is, I believe, the most glorious of all Roses. No 
true Rosarian ever forgets the first perfect bloom 
he sees of it. * Even at this distance of time,' writes 
Mr. Rivers in 1867, *I have not forgotten the delight 



SELECTION 129 

I felt on seeing this Rose in full bloom at Angers 
in 1843. Its flowers were like large golden bells/ 
So I saw it in May 1880, growing in all its abundant 
beauty in the gardens of the Riviera ; one plant, 
for example, which, having climbed to the top of 
a high chestnut tree, was flowering here, there, 
and everywhere, amid the branches, in the grounds 
of the Villa Cessoles, near Nice. Why, then, have 
I not given it precedence ? Simply because, were 
such a compliment offered, the Rose would scarcely 
ever be there to receive it. Because in this climate 
it is so rarely realised, that I do not remember to 
have seen it, in perfection, more than three or four 
times in my life. Puny personifications, and dread- 
ful imbecilities arrogating the name, I have met 
with frequently ; but the grand gold goblet, to hold 
nectar for the gods, is seen but on state occasions 
— a chalice for the coronation of kings. It is a 
'shy bloomer,' 'wants a warm wall,' 'good for the 
conservatory,' they tell us who know it best. And 
yet (so capricious is beauty) I once saw noble 
specimens of this flower upon the walls of a cottage 
five miles from my home ; and the gentleman to 
whom the cottage belonged was never, I believe, 
more happy than when he came to dine with me, 
wearing in his coat a huge bud which he had 

begged from his tenant, and which resembled in 

I 



I30 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

size the egg of a turkey, or rather, in my eyes, 
of a roc. 

Alas ! this tree perished years ago. Its fate was 
the common lot of its race — to be cut down by cruel 
frosts. And yet I would advise amateurs to do as 
I do, persevere in growing it. One year's harvest 
will be recompense enough for the ploughing and 
sowing of a decade. If other Roses boast of their 
fecundity, this may answer, as the queen of beasts 
to the fox, ^ My children are few, but they are lions^ 
Try it on a south wall ; try it on verandah and 
arcade (I have seen it flowering freely on the latter) ; 
try it budded on the Celine Hybrid Bourbon, which 
is also most congenial for Climbing Devoniensis ; 
try it on the Banksian and Manetti stocks ; try it 
on its own roots, protecting it during the winter 
months with some good thick surface-dressing. I 
do not recommend matting, or other material, which 
keeps light and air from the plant. A sickly un- 
natural growth is often caused thereby, which renders 
the plant more powerless than ever to resist its 
enemies — insects and vernal frost. 

Rose No. 2 is Mar^chal Niel. Since the time 
when, a baby in floriculture, I first began to *take 
notice' of Roses, more than thirty years ago, three 
new stars of special brightness have glittered in our 
firmament — Gloire de Dijon, Charles Lefebvre, and 



SELECTION 131 

Mar^chal Niel. The latter is, I think, the greatest 
acquisition, because we had, previous to its intro- 
duction, no hardy Yellow Rose, realising, as this 
does — in the wonderful beauty of its pendant flowers, 
which should be seen from below, their size, shape, 
colour, fragrance, longevity, abundance, in the ampli- 
tude of its glossy leaves and the general habit of 
the plant — our every desire and hope. We possessed 
some approximation to Gloire de Dijon in our Tea 
and Noisette Roses. Charles Lefebvre was a de- 
velopment of General Jacqueminot, even as the 
General had been an improvement on Geant des 
Batailles ; but of a hardy Golden Rose, more precious 
and more welcome a thousand times than those 
Golden Roses which popes have sent to favoured 
kings, we saw no harbinger. The beautiful old 
Yellow Provence was all but extinct. I have never 
seen it, except in the gardens of Burleigh — * Burleigh 
House by Stamford town.^ The few splendid petals 
of the Persian Yellow only increased our sacra 
fames auri — the egg-cup made us long for the 
tankard of gold. Solfaterre had not depth of colour, 
and its flowers were faulty in shape ; Cloth-of-Gold 
was not meant to be worn out of doors, and was 
quickly tarnished by rough weather ; and even the 
Mar^chaFs own mother, Isabella Gray, had dis- 
played such feeble charms that no one mourned 



132 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

her sterility. Suddenly, unexpectedly she produced 
a paragon. 

Thus I wrote in the former editions of my book, 
and then gave as my reason for not awarding to 
the Marechal precedence over all other Climbing 
Roses, the fact that he had not as yet passed the 
ordeal of one of our severest winters. In common 
with many other Rosarians, I thought that he was 
perfectly hardy ; but I resolved to abide by the 
invariable rule, which I have ever observed in writing 
about Roses, to make no statements on hearsay or 
at hazard, but those only which I had proved to be 
true. A sorrowful experience has since confirmed 
the prudence of that resolution. In the spring-tide 
of the year 1871, I gazed, a sadder and a wiser man, 
upon the black branches of my best al fresco speci- 
mens, and Marechal Niel was as lifeless as Marechal 
Ney. And in the summer of 1877 I found, upon 
some thirty trees, but few perfect specimens, all being 
more or less injured by the frosts of early spring. 

What Rose, do you think, shall I plant in his 
place? The nearest resemblance to his living self 
on which I can lay my hands. ' And the grounds,* 
you ask sarcastically, ^ of this love for corpses ? ' 
The grounds, stern censor, are these : The trees 
which were injured had not sufficient protection ; 
and though my hope is gone of pronouncing this 



SELECTION 133 

glorious Rose to be perfectly hardy, I feel sure that 
if the roots are well covered by manure during the 
winter, and if the weather be very severe the upper 
growth be screened by a few branches of fir or fronds 
of the common bracken, we may preserve it always 
from fatal injury, and almost always from any injury 
whatever. If it dies after all, even then I should 
say, ^ Tis better to have loved and lost, than never 
to have loved at all/ 

As to the best method of growing this variety, 
there seemed to be at first some hesitation among 
our Rose-merchants as to the propriety of a union 
between such delicate beauty and that rough, wild 
vagabond, the jolly Dog- Rose ; and it was ' sent out ' 
generally budded or grafted upon the Manetti, or 
recently struck on its own roots, about the size of a 
toothpick. We have since discovered that, as fair 
damsels love stalwart knights, this Rose grows and 
blooms most vigorously when budded or grafted (in 
either case so low that the Rose itself may ultimately 
be covered by the soil and root in it) upon the Brier.^ 
This is the best stock for it, so far as my experience 
goes ; but there is another with which it mates most 
happily, and of this I had last season a somewhat 

^ It is, nevertheless, a melancholy fact that when Mar^chal Niel is 
budded on the standard Brier, and thrives upon it, the Rose will 
ultimately outgrow the stock, a large excrescence will be formed at 
the point of juncture, and here a fatal decay will begin. 



134 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

curious proof. Be it known, then, and apropos of 
mates, that the lady whom, on an interesting occa- 
sion, I endowed with all my worldly goods, does 
not avail herself of my matrimonial munificence 
with regard to my show Roses, but contents herself 
during the exhibition season with the produce of 
certain trees exclusively appropriated to her. One 
morning toward the end of May, I listened with 
amused incredulity to her announcement that she 
* had just cut a beautiful bloom of the Mar^chal'; 
and being perfectly sure that there was no tree of 
that variety in her collection, and no expanded 
flower on my own, I ventured to ask, with affec- 
tionate sarcasm, which of her plants had distinguished 
itself for life by this grand supernatural victory ? 
The prompt answer was — * Gloire de Dijon : go to 
my room and look!' I went, expecting to see 
some abnormal specimen of the flower, and I found 
in all its loveliness Marechal Niel ! Thence to the 
branch from which it came, and then the mystery 
was explained. I had mentioned to my gardener, 
in the preceding summer, some remarks which I had 
read from Mr. Rivers, the younger, recommending 
the Gloire as a stock for the Marechal. He had 
tried the recipe, as I now advise my readers to try 
it, and had first perplexed and then pleased me with 
the prompt success of his enterprise. 



SELECTION 135 

The Banksian Rose is also a most genial stock 
for the Mar^chal ; and if any of my readers are the 
happy proprietors of the former, under glass ^ I advise 
them by all means to bud the latter upon it. La 
Belle Lyonnaise, Madame Berard, Reine Marie 
Henrietta, and Reve d'Or, daughters of Gloire de 
Dijon, but with distinctive charms, are attractive 
Climbing Roses ; and Lamarque, the parent of 
Cloth-of-Gold, well deserves a place on some sunny 
wall, growing very rapidly, and being one of the 
earliest Roses to charm us with its refined and 
graceful flowers. These are large and full, the outer 
petals of a soft pure white, the inner of a pale straw- 
colour. 

The Roses which I have just described are as 
capable of climbing as Jack's Bean stalk ; indeed, it 
may be said that Roses generally may be induced to 
climb^ if planted in rich soil against a wall, facing 
south or east. In such a sunny site, the develop- 
ment of the tree, once thoroughly established and 
settled down to its work, is marvellous. Not so 
rapid, of course, nor so extensive in longitude or 
latitude, as with the more nomad and wandering 
tribes, but such as to astonish those Rosarians who 
have only seen a less favoured growth, and to satisfy 
in time almost any requirements as to the space 
which has to be covered. In half-a-dozen summers 



136 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

many of the Hybrid Bourbon, Hybrid China, and 
Gallican Roses will reach the eaves of an ordinary 
dwelling, as I have proved with Charles Lawson 
and with Coupe d'H^be ; and in a decade the side 
of a good-sized house might be decorated with such 
a grower as Blairii 2. The bloom is early, ample, 
and magnificent ; but as it is brief, and there is no 
aftermath, I would only advise these Roses to be 
introduced where mural space is superabundant. 

Climbing Victor Verdier, introduced by Mr. Paul 
of Cheshunt, has mounted the wall of my gardener's 
house to the height of 12 feet, and blooms beauti- 
fully.^ Many others of the Hybrid Perpetuals 
would also, I am assured, by the experiments which 
I have made, attain grand proportions if grown 
upon walls ; but the best of all red Climbing Roses 
' is Cheshunt Hybrid, with its large, glossy foliage, 
and its glowing, well-formed flowers. Souvenir de 
la Malmaison, Bourbon, also spreads itself high and 
wide upon a southern wall. In all these cases I 
should prefer to plant Rose-trees upon their own 
roots, if I could have them strong and clean : in the 
last case. Souvenir de la Malmaison, this condition 
is inseparable from a successful issue, 

^ Climbing Captain Christy, Niphetos, and Perle des Jardins are also 
great acquisitions, but I find that in several instances these * sports ' 
are inclined, so far as growth is concerned, to ' revert to type.' 



SELECTION 137 

Even the varieties of those Tea -scented Roses 
which have been thought too deHcate for outdoor 
culture, will in many instances follow the example 
of William Allen Richardson and Tldeal, and will 
make robust growth when placed against a warm 
wall and mulched in winter. I had a plant of 
Souvenir d'un Ami, 7 feet in height, in which a 
thrush built her nest and safely reared her young. 

It must, however, be borne in mind, that in the 
majority of cases there is neither the place nor the 
patience for these specimens. Climbing Roses are 
required, as a rule, to do their work quickly ; and 
we will therefore proceed to consider those varieties 
which have been selected by the Rose-merchants, 
and proposed to us in their catalogues, for this 
purpose — the Ayrshire, the Evergreen, the Banksian, 
the Boursault, and others. 

The Ayrshire and Evergreen Roses — it should be 
Evergreen, if the weather permit — have many claims 
upon our grateful admiration. If we have an ugly, 
red-faced, staring wall, which seems to glory in its 
ugliness, they will hide its deformities more quickly 
than any other Rose or any other creeper (unless 
it be the Amphilopsis, and this is deciduous) with 
which I have acquaintance. Only give them a good 
start, as you give an Irishman ^jist a hint' of whisky 
before you send him on an errand ; and, however 



138 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

adverse the position or the aspect, off they go Hke 
lamp-lighters. With their shining leaves, and their 
pretty clusters of white, pink-tinted flowers, they will 
flourish where no others can grow — in the waste 
places of the earth, in damp, dismal corners, under 
trees, and up them, if you wish. Upon the blank 
wall of two new rooms, having a western aspect, 
I planted * Rampant,' sempervirens. Owing to the 
proximity of another wall and of intermediate 
shrubs, he was only gladdened occasionally with 
a few kindly smiles from the setting sun ; and 
though I gave him plentifully good soil and good 
manure, I left him hoping against hope. The first 
year he did little. I thought he was dying in his 
dreary dungeon, but he was only planning his escape; 
and out he bolted the next summer, making shoots 
like salmon - rods, some more than 20 feet long. 
* Rampant' must have had adult baptism, and was 
well named by his sponsors, always reminding one 
of a Lancashire anecdote, how a poor client waited 
upon one Lawyer Cheek of Manchester, with a long 
bill in his hand, and sighed, as he put down the 
brass on the table, ^ They dunna call thee Cheek for 
nought.' 

Other members of these two families are alike 
successful in surmounting hardships — e.g,y among 
the Ayrshires, Dundee Rambler, Queen of Belgians, 



SELECTION 139 

Ruga (with its faint odour of the ancestral Tea, 
which intermarried, it is said, with the Roses of 
Ayr), and Thoresbyana — raised, a few miles from 
my home, at Thoresby ; and among the Evergreens, 
Adelaide d'Orleans, Felicite Perpetuelle (who would 
not desire to have a Rose so named upon his house ?), 
Myrianthes, and Longfield Rambler. 

These Roses are also most appropriate for covering 
bowers in the Rosarium, or arched entrances leading 
to it. They are very effective upon the banks and 
slopes which I have recommended at page 113, 
flooding them, as it were, with a white cascade of 
Roses ; and budded upon tall standards of the Brier, 
they may be soon trained into Weeping Roses — into 
fountains of leaves and flowers. 

Would that Burns had gazed and written upon the 
lovely little Banksian Rose ! He would not have 
esteemed the wee modest daisy one iota the less — he 
was too true a florist for that ; but he would have 
painted for us in musical words a charming portrait 
of this pocket, or rather button-hole, Venus — this 
petite inignonne^ which, singly, would make a glorious 
bouquet for Queen Mab's coachman, or, en groupe, a 
charming wreath for a doll's wedding, such as I 
remember to have attended once in my childhood, 
when, horribile dictu ! the bride upon her way to the 
altar fell prone from our rocking-horse (a nuptial 



140 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

grey), and broke her bridal nose. The Banksian 

Rose is, indeed, 

* A miniature of loveliness, all grace 
Summed up and closed in little 

and both the yellow and white varieties — the latter 
having a sweet perfume, as though it had just 
returned from a visit to the violet — should be in 
every collection of mural Roses. The plants should 
be on their own roots, and those roots should be well 
protected during the winter months. It cannot be 
warranted perfectly hardy, but with careful mulching 
there is scarcely one frost in a lifetime which will kill 
it. It may be injured even to the ground, but it will 
come up again with wondrous rapidity. 

Under favourable circumstances, the growth of this 
Rose is most luxuriant. A French writer on Roses 
tells us of a tree at Toulon which covered a wall 75 
feet in breadth and 15 to 18 in height, and which had 
fifty thousand flowers in simultaneous bloom ; and 
there are specimens in our own gardens and con- 
servatories which repress any unbelief in those who 
have not seen the lovely luxuriance with which it 
grows in sunnier climes. There is neither height nor 
width of masonry which it cannot surmount and 
cover ; and when you see it, as I have seen it, inter- 
mixed with Bougainvillea spectabilis^ and with the 
branches of the Judas-tree, and blending its golden 



SELECTION 141 

glories with their crimson and roseate sheen, you get 
some idea what the writer means who talks about 
being Mrunk with beauty/ The trees should be 
pruned when they have flowered in summer, so that 
a fresh growth of laterals may be well ripened before 
winter, and bloom in the ensuing spring.^ 

Rather more than twenty years ago, Mr. Fortune 
sent over a batch of Climbing Roses from China, 
and from one of them, named Fortune's Yellow, great 
expectations rose. It was described by a Rosarian 
at Seven Oaks as being ^nearly as rampant as the 
old Ayrshire, quite hardy, covered from the middle 
of May with large loose flowers of every shade — 
between a rich reddish-buff and a full coppery pink 
— and rambling over a low wall, covering it on both 
sides, about 20 feet wide, and 5 feet high/ Mr. 
Fortune himself described it as most striking in its 
own country, with flowers ^yellowish-salmon, and 
bronze-like ; ' but it has not as yet received in 
England the attention which it deserves, as one of 
the most attractive and abundant of Roses. They 
who have seen it as it is grown at Blenheim and 
elsewhere, will not be happy until they have planted 
it on a southern wall. With this aspect, and with 
a surface protection from the frost, it is hardy in the 

^ Upon the Banksian Rose, once established, other Roses, of the 
Tea and Noisette families, may be successfully budded. 



142 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

Midland Counties, and has been flourishing for many 
years on my house at Caunton. 

The Boursault Rose is called, from its habitat, 
Rosa Alpina^ and, when once established in con- 
genial site and soil, has an agility in climbing which 
entitles to membership in the Alpine Club. The 
old crimson Amadis is very beautiful when the 
evening sun is low, and the soft light rests upon 
its glowing flowers, and the blush variety is large and 
lovely (albeit the floral cottager was right who told 
me that he 'considered them Roses flothery')\ but 
Ichabod is soon written on flower and leaf, and the 
habit of growth is anything but graceful, * Gracilis ' 
itself forming no exception. They may be trained 
both to climb and droop. But there are better 
Roses, and therefore they are disappearing from the 
lists (as fair ladies do when no combatant wears 
their glove in his helmet) ; and I sigh to count the 
happy, happy years which are gone since I laid 
*the Garland,* as an Immortelle, upon the tomb 
of ' Madame D'Arblay.' 

Most beautiful of the mural Roses are some of 
those varieties which are classified as Hybrid Bourbon 
and Hybrid China, such as Blairii 2, Charles Lawson, 
Coupe d'Heb^, Paul Perras, and Paul Ricaut, de- 
scribed in the succeeding chapter. Their longitude 
and latitude, their abundant and lovely blooms, their 



SELECTION 143 

large and glossy leaves, suppress our regrets that 
these Roses have not the symmetry or the endurance 
which is required for exhibition, and that their 
efflorescence is as brief as it is beautiful. 

The more recent and distinct additions to our 
Climbing Roses, which have been welcomed with our 
grateful admiration, are William Allen Richardson, 
classified as a Noisette, of vigorous habit (though it is 
wise to mulch the ground over its roots in winter), 
and producing an abundance of lovely Roses, the 
central petals being in colour a deep orange or 
apricot yellow, and the outer white Oh, mama,' 
said a child as she saw them, * look at the poached 
eggs ! ') ; and the other is a Japanese Rose intro- 
duced by Mr. Turner of Slough, named ^ Crimson 
Rambler,' a most vigorous grower, making shoots 1 5 
feet in length ; and these producing a profusion of 
rich crimson flowers in clusters, with glossy foliage, 
to be ordered by all Rosarians. 

LTdeal is a most attractive Rose, with its novel 
and distinct hues of yellow and red, but I and others 
have found this ideal very difficult to realise, and 

* If she be not fair for me, 
What care I how fair she be?' 



CHAPTER IX 



SELECTION — {continued) 

Descending now from roseate heights, and ere 
we reach the perfumed plains below, we must 
halt to gaze upon our 

Pillar Roses, 

some rising singly here and there, like the proud 
standards of victorious troops; some meeting in 
graceful conjunction, saluting each other like our 
, forefathers and foremothers in the stately minuet 
— bowing themselves like tall and supple cavaliers, 
into arches of courtesy, with keystones of cocked 
hats. In both phases these Pillar Roses are beautiful 
additions to the Rosarium, enabling us, like the 
Rose-mounds previously commended, to enliven, 
with a pleasing diversity, that level which is 
described as dead. But with reference to the first, 
I must offer to amateurs a respectful caution — that 
to grow single specimens in isolated positions, 
where they will invite, and ought to satisfy, special 

144 



SELECTION 145 

criticism, knowledge of habit, and experience in 
pruning, will be indispensable. Melancholy results 
must inevitably ensue from ignorance or inatten- 
tion; and I have shuddered to see examples of 
both in long lanky trees, without any lateral 
shoots, flowerless and leafless for three-fourths of 
their height, reminding one of those shorn disgusting 
poodles, profanely termed by their proprietors 
' lions,' as they stand upon their execrable hind 
legs to beg. But not upon them — not upon the 
helpless object — but on the barbarous owner, we 
must expend our noble rage; upon those who have 
brought innocent loveliness to the whipping-post, 
or rather the pillory, and compelled her to look 
the words which St. Simeon Stylites moaned — 

' Patient on this tall pillar I have borne 
Rain, wind, frost, heat, hail, damp, and sleet, and snow.' 

The best plan of growing these Roses, which a 

long experience has taught me, is this : To prepare 

and enrich your soil as I have advised in Chapters 

VI. and VII., and then to fix firmly therein the 

pillar which is to support the trees. Of what 

material is this pillar to be.^ — wood or iron? The 

former commends itself to the eye (and the pocket) 

at once ; and I well remember the satisfaction with 

which I surveyed an early experiment with larch 

K 



H6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

poles, the lower part well charred and tarred, and 
driven deep into the ground, and looking from the 
first so very rustic and natural. The Rose-trees 
grew luxuriantly, and for three or four summers I 
esteemed myself invincible in the game of pyramids. 
Then one night there came heavy rain, attended 
by a hurricane, and when I went out next morning, 
two of my best trees were lying flat upon the ground, 
with their roots exposed (the poles, having decayed 
near the surface, had snapped suddenly) ; and several 
others were leaning like the tower at Pisa or the 
spire of Chesterfield Church, some hopelessly dis- 
placed, and others deformed and broken. Fallen, 
and about to fall, they looked as though their 
liquid manure had been mixed too strong for them, 
and had made them superlatively drunk. Shortly 
afterwards I had another disaster, caused by a 
similar decay — the top of a pole, in which two 
iron arches met each other, giving way to a 
boisterous wind, and so causing a divorcement 
between Brennus and Adelaide d'Orleans, long and 
lovingly united. I would therefore advise, not 
dwelling upon other disadvantages resulting from 
the use of wood — such as the production of fungi, 
and the open house which it provides for insects — 
that the supports for Pillar Roses be of iron. 
Neatly made and painted, tastefully and sparingly 



SELECTION 147 

posed, they are never unsightly; and, enduring as 
long as the trees themselves, they will in the end 
repay that first outlay which makes them, for some 
time, an expensive luxury. 

The height and thickness of these single rods 
will be determined by the position to be occupied, 
from 5 to 8 feet above the ground being the most 
common altitudes, and the circumference varying 
from to 3 inches. Below the surface, their tripod 
prongs must be deeply and securely fixed from 
I foot to 18 inches in the soil, so as to bear any 
weight of flowers and foliage, and defy all the 
royal artillery of ^Eolus. For arches, the rods may 
be 7 or 8 feet from the ground, and 8 or 9 feet 
apart. 

The ground and supports being prepared, a 
selection may be made from the list subjoined of 
varieties, vigorous and beautiful (as the recruiting- 
sergeant picks out for the Guards the more robust 
examples of humanity) ; and these, whether on 
their own roots or worked upon Brier or Manetti 
stocks, according to their habit and the character 
of the soil, should be planted in November, and 
safely tied to their rods. Tarred twine is the best 
material for the latter purpose, being cheap, durable, 
and to be had in difi*erent thicknesses, according 
to the strength required. Prune closely in the 



148 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

following March, removing three-fourths of your 
wood, so as to insure a grand growth in the 
summer, which, moderately shortened in the suc- 
ceeding spring, should furnish your pillar, from 
soil to summit, with flowering lateral shoots. By 
the time your tree has attained the dimensions 
required, your observation will have taught you 
how, for the future, to prune it so that you may 
be sure of an annual bloom, cutting away all 
weakly wood, and regulating the general growth 
with an eye both to form and florescence. As 
with a vine, if you only put a strong cane into a 
rich border, and use the knife courageously, you 
may be sure of grapes. 

As single specimens of Pillar Roses, the following 
may be tried with confidence : — 

* Anna Alexieff^ free in growth, in foliage, and flowers— the 
latter of a fresh pure rose-colour, which makes the tree 
very distinct and charming. 

Baronne Prevost^ another of the few old favourites still claiming 
a place in the Rosary. The flowers are very large, fragrant, 
and of a true rose-colour. 

Belle Lyo7inaise^ a daughter of Gloire de Dijon, smaller, paler, 
and less bountiful than her mother, but a very pretty Rose 
— referred to, p. 135. 

Blairii 2, a perplexing title (transposed to ' Bleary Eye ' by a 
cottager of my acquaintance), until we receive the explana- 
tion that the Rose was one of two seedlings raised by 

1 All the Roses in this list, except Gloire de Bourdeaux, Gloire de 
Dijon, and Jaune Desprez, are of the Hybrid Perpetual family. 



SELECTION 



149 



Mr. Blair of Stamford Hill, near London. No. i, though 
once eulogised (see Sweet's 'British Flower-Garden.' vol. iv. 
p. 405) as ' this splendid Rose/ is worthless ; but No. 2, 
with its large globular flowers, the petals deepening from 
a most delicate flesh-colour without to a deep rosy blush 
within, is a gem of purest ray serene. A bloom of it, cut 
from the tree before it was fully expanded, in the inter- 
mediate state between a bud and a Rose, and tastefully 
placed with a frond of Adiantum (Cuneatum, Sanctae 
Catherinae, Farleyense, or Tenerum) in her back hair — 
I beg pardon, her back snakes — would make even a Fury 
good-looking. It belongs to the Hybrid China family, 
as does 

Brenmcs, far more happy as a Climbing Rose than when, 
scaling with his Gauls the Tarpeian rock, he woke up 
the geese who woke up the Romans to repel him head- 
long, and to save their capital. It is a most free-growing, 
free-bloom.ing variety, with large deep carmine flowers. 

Charles Lawson^ a hybrid from the Isle de Bourbon Rose, 
makes a noble specimen, producing magnificent blooms 
of a bright glowing pink abundantly in all seasons. This 
glorious Rose well deserves all those adjectives expressive 
of beauty which, I begin to fear, my readers will regard 
as wearisome and vain repetitions. I can only plead 
that the epithets are true, and cry 'Excuse tautology!' 
as I once heard a parrot scream for the best part of a 
sunimer's day. 

ChSnedole^ Hybrid China, is a very attractive garden Rose. 
Not 'an article which will bear the closest inspection' of 
anatomical eyes, but adding greatly to the general effect of 
the Rosarium with its vivid crimson flowers. 

Coupe (VHebe^ Hybrid Bourbon, is perhaps a size smaller than 
we should have expected Hebe's cup to be, considering 
the requirements of such inflammatory personages as 
Jupiter, Mars, and Bacchus. Probably, when the gods 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



set up a butler, as they did on the dismissal of Hebe, 
and in the person of Ganymede, they may have enlarged 
their goblets; but it was a fashion of the ancients, including 
our own grandfathers, to take their wine from egg-cups 
and extinguishers of glass. Be this as it may. Coupe 
d'Hebe is undoubtedly one of our most graceful and 
refined Roses, exquisite in form and in colour, the latter 
a silvery blush. Referring to a list of the Roses which 
I grew in 185 1, I find that, of 434 varieties, 410 have been 
disannulled to make way for their betters ! Of the two 
dozen which are in office still, three-fourths are climbing or 
decorative Roses, and six only of sufficient merit to pass 
the ordeal of exhibition — namely, Blairii 2, Cloth-of-Gold, 
Devoniensis, La Reine, Souvenir de Malmaison, and Coupe 
d'Hebe. 

Cheshunt Hybrid^ Climbing Captain Christy^ Perle des Jardins^ 
Victor Verdier^ dcddi Madame Berard must be also included 
among the Climbing Roses. 

Edouard Morren is very effective for the purpose under con- 
sideration, being of robust growth, and liberally producing 
its large, symmetrical, rose-carmines flowers. 

General Jacqueminot^ for so many summers the Rose of our 
gardens, is still a glory and grace, its petals, soft and 
smooth as velvet, glowing with vivid crimson, and its 
growth being free and healthful. I well remember the 
time when we welcomed this conquering hero, in his 
brilliant uniform, as being invincible ; but development 
in Roses is no theory, as in certain schools of theology, 
but a sure reality, and the General must now pale his 
ineffectual fire in the presence of such Roses as Alfred 
Colomb, Charles Lefebvre, and Marie Beauman. As a 
Pillar Rose, notwithstanding, he is not surpassed. 

Gloire de Dijon, described among the Climbers, but excellent 
in every phase. Like Phyllis, * it never fails to please ; ' 
unlike Phyllis, it is never ' coy,' 



SELECTION 



Jaune Despres, Noisette. — Phoebus, what a name ! Little 
thought poor Monsieur Desprez, when he sent out his 
seedling in the pride of his heart, that it would associate 
his name throughout the Rose-loving world with jaundice 
and bilious fever. Yellow Desprez, moreover, is not yellow, 
but buff or fawn colour, deliciously fragrant, of beautiful 
foliage, blooms freely in autumn, and makes, with careful 
culture, a pretty Pillar Rose. 

Jtmo, H.C., a Rose which, like the goddess, may justly complain 
of neglect, appearing in few gardens, and well deserving 
a place in all. I must allow that Juno is sometimes 
' inconstant ' ; nor does the sorrowful fact surprise us, 
foreknowing the provocations of her husband Jupiter ; but 
she is, generally, all that a good Rose ought to be, and 
then most divinely fair. We have so few Roses of her 
pale delicate complexion, that, until we are favoured with 
more perpetuals of the Caroline de Sansales style, Juno is 
a most valuable Rose, large and full, and, in her best 
phase, an effective flower for exhibition. 

Mrs. John Laing — not only in vigour, constancy, and abundance, 
but 'in form and features "Beauty's Queen'" — a Rose 
which never disappoints. 

Jules MargotiUi bears the honoured name of one who has 
enriched our Rose-gardens with many a precious treasure 
— Mons. Margottin of Bourg-la-Reine, near Paris ; and 
no column could declare his praises so suitably, or per- 
petuate his fame so surely, as a pillar of this lovely Rose. 
I would rather that a pyramid of its sweet bright flowers 
bloomed above my grave, than have the fairest monument 
which art could raise. But ' there's time enough for that,' 
as the young lady observed to her poetical lover, when he 
promised her a first-class epitaph. 

Madame Clemence Joigneaux. — Were I asked to point out a 
Rose-tree which 1 considered a specimen of healthful 
habit and good constitution, I know of none which I 



152 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

should prefer before M. C. J., with its long, strong, sapful 

shoots, its broad, clear, shining leaves, and its grand 

cupped carmine flowers. 
Marechal Vaillant well merits his baton for distinguished 

conduct in the garden ; and, in his bright crimson 

uniform, is never absent from his post, nor ever fails to 

distinguish himself when the wars of the Roses are fought 

in the tented field. 
Paul Neron is admirably suited for this method of cultivation, 

with his ample foliage, his huge yet handsome flowers — in 

colour bright rose, and as to size supreme. 
Paid Perras^ H.B., is another valuable Rose in this section, of 

robust growth, and producing plentifully its well-shaped 

blooms, of a light rose^-colour. 

Longworth Rambler — introduced by Liabaud — is effective as a 
Pillar Rose, of rapid growth, and abundantly productive 
of its vivid crimson flowers. 

Paul Ricaut^ H.B., was once the swell of the period, the 
D'Orsay in our beau, vio7ide of Roses ; and though no 
longer a leader of fashion, he is still a very attractive 
member of society. Upon the tree, its large, closely- 
petalled, rich crimson flowers are most beautiful ; but it 
is not reliable as a show Rose, expanding rapidly, and 
too often displaying a large ' eye,' on his arrival at the 
exhibition, as though astonished by the splendour of the 
scene. 

Ulrich Brunner^ said to be Paul's son or seedling, of robust 
habit, like his father, but of a more ruddy complexion, 
and more compact in form. 

Arches and arcades are graceful, because natural, 
forms, quas Natura sua spoiite suggerit^ as we read 
in our Oxford Logic, in which to grow varieties of 



SELECTION 153 

the Rose having long, lissom, drooping branches. 
All the Climbing Roses selected in the preceding 
chapter, except the Banksian, which must have a 
wall, are admirable for the purpose — the Ayrshire 
and Sempervirens being the first to fulfil their 
mission, covering the framework in two or three 
summers with their white clustering Roses and 
deep-green glossy leaves ; and all the summer Roses 
which I have selected for pillars, omitting Paul 
Ricaut, are equally to be commended for arches 
also, and soon meet each other upon them when 
generously and judiciously treated. 

These arches and arcades might be introduced 
with a pleasing effect in other places away from the 
Rosarium — in those plantation walks, for example, 
which are attached to many of our country residences; 
and these Climbing Roses might be planted by 
landlords of generosity and taste, so as to make 
unsightly buildings ornamental, and to render many 
a plain cottage more cheerful and homelike. I 
should like to see them more frequently at our 
railway stations — and why not upon our railway 
bridges and embankments ? How striking and 
beautiful thereon would be such a torrent of white 
Roses as I have seen at Sawbridgeworth, covering 
the bank between the road and the home of my 
dear friend Thomas Rivers. Almost everywhere 



154 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

there is a great waste of mural space on which 
flowers or fruits might be grown. 

Coming down from the Climbers to the 

Tall Standards, 

I take leave to say that, although, where windows 
and walls are otherwise inaccessible, a long spider- 
broom in the hands of an efficient housemaid 
deserves the admiration with which we watched it 
in our youth, few persons would think of cutting 
it in twain, and of setting the upper half in a garden 
of Roses. Yet have I seen objects suggestive of 
such an operation in some of these remarkably tall 
standards which are still extant, but which, were I 
Czar and Autocrat of all the Roses, would soon 
find themselves, like other wretched Poles, in exile. 
' Their appearance is dismal ; there is no congruity 
between stock and scion, no union between horse 
and rider — an exposition, on the contrary, of mutual 
discomfort, as though the monkey were to mount 
the giraffe. The proprietors, it would seem, have 
been misled by an impression that the vigour of the 
Brier would be imparted to the Rose, whereas the 
superabundance of sap has been fatal. Food, con- 
tinuous and compulsory, which it could not assimilate 
or digest, has induced a sickly surfeit ; and the 
wretched Rose is stupefied, and looks so, with a 



SELECTION 155 

determination of blood to the head. Granting a 
success, which I have never seen but once (in a 
glorious tree of the old Hybrid China Fulgens), the 
process of fruition would be laborious. Only from a 
balloon, a balcony, a bedroom window, could we 
supervise and fully appreciate such sublimities ! Are 
we then to discard entirely those standard trees de- 
scribed to us in the catalogue as 'extra tair? Is 
Briareus the giant to be again buried beneath Mount 
Etna — i.e., the rubbish heap } Certainly not. He 
may do us good service, kindly treated, and be made 
to look most imposing in our gardens holding a fair 
bouquet of Roses in each of his hundred hands. I 
mean that the vigorous Briers, from 6 to 8 feet in 
height, may be converted into 

Weeping Rose Trees, 

which, properly trained, are very beautiful. Buds 
of the Ayrshire and Evergreen Roses, of Amadis 
and Gracilis, Boursaults, or of Blairii 2, Hybrid 
China, should be inserted, in three or four laterals, 
at the top of such standards as have been selected 
for their health as well as their height. Closely 
pruned the following spring, they may be trans- 
planted from the nursery, or from the private 
budding-ground, in the autumn, and the removal 
must be effected with every possible care and 



156 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

attention. I would advise that these tall specimens 
be moved somewhat earlier than the usual time for 
transplanting, so that, when firmly secured in their 
place, and freely watered, they may be induced to 
make roots, and gain some hold of the ground before 
the winter begins. A strong iron stake, set side by 
side with the stem, and surrounding it just below 
the junction of the buds with a semi-globular frame- 
work, the Vv^hole apparatus resembling a parasol with 
a quadruple allowance of stick, will be the best 
support for the tree (fixed deeply in the ground, of 
course, as directed for the Pillar Roses), and will 
enable the amateur to dispose the branches at regular 
intervals, so that they will finally form a fair dome of 
Roses — such a floral fountain as may have played in 
the fancy of our Laureate when he wrote — 

* The white Rose weeps, she is late.' 

And now we have passed through the Rose-clad 
walls — through the Rose-wreathed colonnades and 
courts of the outer palace — into the anteroom of that 
presence-chamber where we shall see, in brilliant 
assemblage, the beauty and the chivalry of the 
Queen of Flowers. 



CHAPTER X 



GARDEN ROSES 

Just out of Interlachen, the tourist on his way to 
Lauterbrunnen was invited, when I was there, by his 
courier or his coachman to leave the main road, and, 
walking up the higher ground on the right, to survey 
from the garden of a small residence, used as a pension 
or boarding-house, one of the most lovely views in 
Switzerland — the two lakes of Thun and Brienz. So 
would I now invite the amateur to survey and to 
consider the Roses in two divisions. I would 
describe those, in the first place, which are desirable 
additions to the Rosarium, either as enhancing the 
general effect from the abundance or colour of their 
flowers, or as having some distinctive merit of their 
own, and which, not being suitable for exhibition, I 
designate as Garden Roses ; and I would then make 
a selection of the varieties which produce the most 
symmetrical and perfect blooms — that is to say, of 
Roses for exhibition. 

And I advise the amateur, beginning to form a 

157 



158 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

collection, to appropriate unto himself a good pro- 
portion of those Roses from the first division, which, 
being of a more robust growth than many of the 
show varieties, are more likely to satisfy and to 
enlarge his ambition. I hardly think that I should 
have been a Rosarian had not the wise nurseryman 
who supplied the first Roses which I remember, sent 
strong and free-blooming sorts ; and I have known 
many a young florist to be discouraged by w^eakly 
specimens, supplied by inferior or short-sighted pur- 
veyors, and doomed to destruction, as the gladiators, 
who said to the emperor, ' Morituri te salutanV, 
Wherefore, writing with the hope that I may promote 
in others that love of the Rose, from which I have 
derived so much happiness, I exhort novice and 
nurseryman alike, as ever they would build a goodly 
edifice, to lay a deep and sure foundation. Let the 
one select, and the other send, strong specimens of 
such roses, e.g,^ Ulrich Brunner and Mrs. John Laing, 
as never disappoint us. Such a course will induce 
further investments ; and as increase of appetite doth 
grow with that it feeds on (I began with 12 and went 
on to 5000!), the amateur will have to decide for 
himself as to the future selection of his Roses. 
Should he prefer the perfection of individual Roses 
to the general eff"ect of his Rosary — should he find 
more pleasure in a single bloom, teres atque rotunday 



GARDEN ROSES 159 

than in a tree luxuriantly laden with flowers, whose 
petals are less symmetrically disposed — if, like young 
Norval, he has heard of battles and longs to win his 
spurs — then must these latter lusty, trusty, valiant 
pioneers make way for the vanguard of his fighting 
troops. Let him not disband them hastily. If, 
surveying the Roses of these two divisions, and 
having grown them all, I were asked whether I 
should prefer a Rose-garden laid out and planted 
for its general beauty — for its inclusiveness of all 
varieties of special interest — or a collection brought 
together and disposed solely for the production of 
prize flowers — whether I would live by Brienz or by 
Thun, — I hardly know what would be my answer. 
Let the amateur begin with a selection from both, 
and then let him make his choice. A choice, if 
he is worthy of that name, he will have to make, 
as increase of appetite grows with that it feeds on, 
and demands new ground to be broken up for 
its sustenance. To have both a beautiful Rose- 
garden and a garden of beautiful Roses, requires 
the KrjTTLa ttXovtov^ the 

Magnos Senecse praedivitis hortos, 

the ground and the gold, which few can spare. They 
who can — who have both the desire and the means, 
the enthusiasm and the exchequer — should have 



i6o A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

some such a Rosary as I have suggested in the 
chapter on Arrangement, together with a large 
budding-ground annually devoted, fresh Briers or 
Manetti on fresh soil, to the production of show 
Roses. As a rule, the amateur who becomes a keen 
exhibitor will eliminate the varieties which he cannot 
show ; and the amateur who studies tout ensemble — 
the completeness of the scene, diversity, abundance — 
will rest satisfied with his exhibition at home. He 
will grow, of course, the more perfect Roses, enume- 
rated hereafter as Roses suitable for exhibition ; but 
not requiring them in quantity, he will have ample 
room to combine with them those varieties which, 
though their individual flowers are not sufficiently 
symmetrical for the show, have their own special 
grace and beauty — the garden Roses, which I now 
propose to discuss. 

He must not omit the blushing, fresh, fragrant 
Provence. It was to many of us the Rose of our 
childhood, and its delicious perfume passes through 
the outer sense into our hearts, gladdening them with 
bright and happy dreams, saddening them with lone 
and chill awakings. It brings more to us than the 
fairness and sweet smell of a Rose. We paused in 
our play to gaze on it, with the touch of a vanished 
hand in ours, with a father s blessing on our heads, 
and a mother's prayer that we might never lose our 



GARDEN ROSES 



i6i 



love of the pure and beautiful. Happy they who 
retain or regain that love : and thankful am I that, 
with regard to Roses, the child was father to the 
man. Yes, I was a Rosarian cet. med IV., never to 
be so happy again in this world as when the fingers, 
which are writing now, plucked from the brook-side, 
from the sunny bank, from the meadow and the 
hedgerow and the wood, the violet, the primrose, the 
cowslip, the orchis, and Ike Rose. Nay, about my 
seventh summer I oft presided at a ' flower-show ' — 
for thus we designated a few petals of this Provence 
Rose, or of some other flower placed behind a piece 
of broken glass, furtively appropriated when the 
glazier was at dinner, and cutting, not seldom, our 
small fingers (retribution swift upon the track of 
crime), which we backed with newspaper turned over 
the front as a frame or edging, and fastened from the 
resources of our natural gums. 

And now, can any of my readers appease indigna- 
tion and satisfy curiosity by informing me who first 
called the Provence Rose ' Old Cabbage,' and why ? ^ 
For myself, ' I should as soon have thought of calling 
an earthquake genteel,* as Dr. Maitland remarked, 
when an old lady near to him during an oratorio 

^ I am, sud rosd, well aware that (as Miller writes in his Dictionary) 
the Cabbage Rose is so called ' because its petals are closely folded 
over each other like cabbages.' 

L 



i62 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

declared the Hallelujah Chorus to be ' very pretty/ 
It must have been a tailor who substituted the name 
of his beloved esculent for a word so full-fraught with 
sweetness, so suggestive of the brave and the beautiful, 
of romance and poesy, sweet minstrelsy and trumpet- 
tones. The origin of the title Provence is, I am aware, 
somewhat obscure. Mr. Rivers thinks that it cannot 
have been given because the Rose was indigenous to 
Provence in France, or our French brethren would 
have proudly claimed it, instead of knowing it only 
by its specific name. Rose a cent feuilles ; but we may 
have received it, nevertheless, from Provence, just as 
Provence, when Provincia, received it — Rosa centifolia 
— from her Roman masters, and may have named it 
accordingly; or we may have had it direct from 
Italy, as stated in Hadyn's ' Dictionary of Dates.' 
Be this as it may, we have all the rhyme, and enough 
of the reason, to justify our preference for the more 
euphonious term, and to vote ' Old Cabbage ' to 
the pigs. 

The Rosarian should devote a small bed of rich 
soil, well manured, to the cultivation of this charming 
flower, growing it on its own roots, and pruning closely. 

The Double Yellow Provence Rose, of a rich, 
glowing, buttercup yellow as to complexion, and 
prettily cupped as to form, full of petal, but of 
medium size, has almost disappeared from our 



GARDEN ROSES 163 

gardens, and I have only seen it in Lord Exeter's 
gardens at 

* Burleigh House, by Stamford town.' 

It was reported to have been brought there by a 
French cook. The gardener, Mr. Gilbert, kindly gave 
me plants and buds ; but like the Bride of Burleigh, 
of whom Tennyson wrote, 

' Faint they grew and ever fainter, 
And they droop'd and droop'd before me, 
Fading slowly from my side.' 

Although common at one time in this country, they 
seem never to have been happy or acclimatised. 
' How am I to burst the yellow Rose } ' was a 
question often sent to the horticultural editor. All 
sorts of manoeuvres, and all sorts of manures, were 
tried. Mrs. Lawrence writes that a tree of this Rose 
was planted against an east wall at Broughton Hall 
in Buckinghamshire, with a dead fox placed at its 
roots, by her father. She adds, fortunately, that he 
' was a great sportsman,' or posterity would certainly 
have suspected papa of being what posterity calls a 
vulpicide. ' In many seasons,' writes the Rev. Mr. 
Hanbury, in his elaborate work upon Gardening, 
published more than a century ago, ' these Roses do 
not blow fair. Sometimes they appear as if the 
sides had been eaten by a worm when in bud ; 



i64 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

at other times the petals are all withered before they 
expand themselves, and form the flower. For this 
purpose, many have recommended to plant them 
against north walls, and in the coldest and moistest 
part of the garden, because, as the contexture of their 
petals is so delicate, they will be then in less danger 
of suffering by the heats of the sun, which seem to 
wither and burn them as often as they expand them- 
selves. But I could not observe without wonder 
what I never saw before — t,e., in the parching and 
dry summer of 1762, all my Double Yellow Roses, 
both in the nursery lines and elsewhere, in the 
hottest of the most southern exposures and dry 
banks, everywhere all over my w^hole plantation, 
flowered clear and fair/ Here, in my opmion, the 
latter paragraph contradicts and disproves the former, 
showing us that, so far from the Yellow Provence 
Rose being burned and withered by the sun, we 
have only now and then, in an exceptional season, 
sunshine sufficient to bring it to perfection. I 
have given it my best sites and soils, but, with 
all my anxious supervision, I have never succeeded 
in persuading this tender emigrant to stay. 

More kindly and gracious is the Miniature or 
Pompon Provence, always bringing us an early 
but too transient supply of those lovely little 
flowers which were the 'baby Roses' and the ^pony 



GARDEN ROSES 165 

Roses' of our childhood. They may be grown 
on their own roots in clumps among other Roses, 
or as edgings to beds, De Meaux and Spong 
being the best varieties. There are many other 
Lilliputian treasures, the Banksian Rose, commended 
when we discussed the Climbers ; the charming 
Scotch Roses, red, yellow, and white, growing in 
great bushes, such as a giantess might bear as a 
bouquet ; and I remember some dear little darlings 
which forty years ago were classified as Hybrid 
Perpetuals — Ernestine de Barcule, Clementine 
Duval, Coquette de Montmorency, and Pauline 
Buonaparte ; but we had no Rose more fascinat- 
ing than the Polyantha now in our gardens, 
such as Perle d'Or, Little Dot, Mignonette, and 
others. 

A few varieties from the Hybrid Provence section 
are valuable in the general collection, having those 
lighter tints which are still infrequent, being of a 
healthful habit, and growing well either as dwarfs 
or standards. Blanchefleur is a very pretty Rose, 
of the colour commonly termed French white — 
i.e., English white with a slight suffusion of pink ; 
Comte Plater and Comtesse de S^gur are of a 
soft buff or cream colour, the latter a well-shaped 
Rose; Princess Clementine is a rara avis in terris^ 
but not a bit like unto a black swan, being one 



i66 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

of our best white Roses ; and Rose Devigne is 
large and beautiful and blushing. These Roses, 
having long and vigorous shoots, should not be 
severely cut, or they will resent the insult by 
' running to wood ^ — excessive lignification, as I 
once heard it termed by a magniloquent pedant, 
and burst out laughing, to the intense disgust of 
the speaker. 

And now I am not entirely exempt from the 
fear, that with some such similar derision the reader 
may receive a fact which I propose to submit to 
him. It is, nevertheless, as true an incident in my 
history as it may be a strange statement in his 
ears, that, once upon a time, hard on fifty 
summers since, I was driven out of London by a 
Rose ! And thus it came to pass : Early in June, 
that period of the year which tries, I think, more 
than any other, the patience of the Rosarian, 
waiting in his garden like some lover for his Maud, 
and vexing his fond heart with idle fears, I was 
glad to have a valid excuse for spending a few 
days in town. To town I went, transacted my 
business, saw the pictures, heard an opera, wept 
my annual tear at a tragedy (whereupon a swell in 
the contiguous stall looked at me as though I were 
going to drown him), visited the Nurseries, rode in 
the Park, met old friends, and was beginning to 



GARDEN ROSES 167 

think that life in the country was not so very much 
* more sweet than that of painted pomp/ when, 
engaged to a dinner-party, on the third day of my 
visit, and to enliven my scenery, I bought a Rose. 
Only a common Rose, one from a hundred which 
a ragged girl was hawking in the streets,^ and 
which the swell I spoke of would have considered 
offal — a Moss-Rosebud, with a bit of fern attached. 
Only a twopenny Rose; but as I carried it in my 
coat, and gazed on it, and specially when, waking 
next morning, I saw it in my water-jug — saw it as 
I lay in my dingy bedroom, and heard the distant 
roar of Piccadilly instead of the thrush's song — 
saw it, and thought of my own Roses — it seemed 
as though they had sent to me a messenger, whom 
they knew I loved, to bid me 'come home, come 
home.' Then I thought of our dinner-party over- 
night, and how my neighbour thereat, a young 
gentleman who had nearly finished a fine fortune 
and a strong constitution, had spoken to me of a 
mutual friend, one of the best and cheeriest fellows 
alive, as ' an awful duffer,' ' moped to death,' ' buried 
alive in some dreadful hole' (dreadful hole being 

^ * Poor Peggy hawks nosegays from street to street, 
Till — think of that, who find life so sweet — 
She hates the smell of Roses ! ' 

—Hood. 



i68 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

a charming place in the country), because he has 
no taste for robbing or being robbed at races, can't 
see the wit of swearing, and has an insuperable 
partiality for his own wife. And I arose, reflecting ; 
and though I had taken my lodgings and arranged 
my plans for three more days in London, I went 
home that morning with the Rosebud in my coat, 
and wandering in my garden at eventide, armed 
with a cigar in case I met an aphis, I exulted in 
my liberation from smuts and smells, and in all 
the restful peace, and the fragrant beauty, which 
glowed around me, until the time came all too 
soon, 

* When in the crimson cloud of even 

The lingering light decays, 
And Hesper on the front of heaven, 
His glittering gem displays.' 

Ah, my brothers ! of the many blessings which 
our gardens bring, there is none more precious 
than the contentment with our lot, the deeper love 
of home, which makes us ever so loath to leave 
them, so glad to return once more. And I would 
that some kindly author who knew history and 
loved gardens too, would collect for us in one 
book (a large one) the testimony of great and 
good men to the power of this sweet and peaceful 
influence — of such witnesses as Bacon and Newton, 



GARDEN ROSES 169 

Evelyn and Cowley, Temple, Pope, Addison, and 
Scott. Writing two of these names, I am reminded 
of words particularly pertinent to the incident 
which led me to quote them, and which will be 
welcome, I do not doubt, even to those gardeners 
who know them best. 

'If great delights,' writes Cowley, 'be joined 
with so much innocence, I think it is ill done of 
men not to take them here, where they are so 
tame and ready at hand, rather than to hunt for 
them in courts and cities, where they are so wild, 
and the chase so troublesome and dangerous. We 
are here among the vast and noble scenes of nature, 
we are there among the pitiful shifts of policy ; we 
work here in the light and open ways of the divine 
bounty, we grope there in the dark and confused 
labyrinths of human malice ; our senses here are 
feasted with the clear and genuine taste of their 
objects, which are all sophisticated there, and for 
the most part overwhelmed with their contraries. 
Here is harmless and cheap plenty ; their guilty 
and expensive luxury.' 

And Sir William Temple, after a long experience 
of all the gratifications which honour and wealth 
could bring, writes thus from his fair home and 
beautiful garden at Moor Park : ' The sweetness 
of air, the pleasantness of smells, the verdure of 



I70 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

plants, the cleanness and lightness of food, the 
exercises of working or walking, but above all the 
exemption from cares and solicitude, seem equally 
to favour and improve both contemplation and 
health, the enjoyment of sense and imagination, 
and thereby the quiet and ease both of the body 
and mind.' And again he speaks of 'the sweet- 
ness and satisfaction of this retreat, where, since 
my resolution taken of never entering again into 
any public employments, I have passed five years 
without ever going once to town, though I am 
almost in sight of it, and have a house there ready 
to receive me/ 

Even so to his garden may every true gardener 
say, as Martial to his wife Marcella — 

* Romam tu mihi sola facis,' 
* You make me callous to all meaner charms/ 

* Let others seek the giddy throng 
Of mirth and revelry; 
The simpler joys which nature yields 
Are dearer far to me/ 

And let there be, by all means, among those joys 
included a bed of the Common Moss-Rose — a ' well- 
aired ' bed of dry subsoil, for damp is fatal — in 
which, planted on its own roots, well manured, 
closely pruned, and pegged down, it will yield its 



GARDEN ROSES 171 

flowers in abundance, most lovely, like American 
girls, in the bud, but long retaining the charms of 
their premilre jeunesse before they arrive at rose- 
hood. When the soil is heavy, the Moss- Rose will 
grow upon the Brier ; and I have had beautiful 
standards of Baron de Wassenaer, a pretty cupped 
Rose, but wanting in substance ; of Comtesse de 
Murinais, a very robust Rose as to wood, but by 
no means so generous of its white petals; of the 
charming Cristata or Crested, a most distinct and 
attractive Rose, first found, it is said, on the walls 
of a convent near Fribourg or Berne, which all 
Rosarians should grow, having buds thickly fringed 
with moss, and these changing in due season to 
large and well-shaped flowers of a clear pink colour ; 
of Gloire des Mousseuses, the largest member of 
the family, and one of the most beautiful pale 
Roses ; of Laneii, for which, on its introduction 
by Mons. Laffay in 1846, I gave half-a-guinea, 
and which repaid me well with some of the best 
Moss-Roses I have grown, of a brilliant colour 
(bright rose), of a symmetrical shape, and of fine 
foliage, free from blight and mildew, those cruel 
foes of the Rose in general and the Moss-Rose 
in particular; of Luxembourg, one of the darker 
varieties, more remarkable for vigour than virtue ; 
of Marie de Blois, a Rose of luxuriant growth, large 



172 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

in flower, and rich in Moss ; of Moussue Presque 
Partout, a singular variety, curiously mossed upon 
its leaves and shoots ; and of Princess Alice, nearly 
white, free-flowering, and much like Comtesse de 
Murinais. But, as a rule, they soon deteriorate on 
the Standard, and will grow more permanently 
budded low on the seedling Brier.^ Celina and 
White Bath I have not included in the preced- 
ing list, never having grown them as standards ; 
but they deserve attention — the first for its 
exquisite crimson buds, the second as being our 
only really white Moss-Rose, but of very delicate 
habit. 

Of the Moss-Roses called Perpetual, and deserving 
the name as autumnal bloomers, Madame Edouard 
Ory and Salet are the only specimens which I 
have grown successfully in my own garden, or 
admired elsewhere. The former is of a carmine, 
the latter of a light rose, tint. ' Little Gem,' a 
miniature Moss-Rose, and a 'gem of purest ray 
serene,' a ruby set with emeralds, having crimson 
flowers surrounded by Moss, gleams brightly amid 
the crown jewels of Her Majesty, the Queen of 
Flowers. 

^ Mr, Prince of Oxford exhibited some vigorous examples of Baron 
de Wassenaer and Eugene Guinnoisseau at the Rose-Show of the 
National Society held in the Crystal Palace, 3rd July 1880. 



GARDEN ROSES 173 

All the Roses which I have selected in this chapter 
are desirable in an extensive Rose-garden. To 
amateurs of less ample range or resources I would 
commend, as the most interesting, the Common 
and Miniature Provence, with the Common and 
the Crested Moss. 



CHAPTER XI 



GARDEN ROSES — {continued) 

I COMMENCED my selection of garden Roses — that is, 
of Roses which are beautiful upon the tree, but not the 
most suitable for exhibition — with the Provence and 
the Moss, because these were the Roses which I loved 
the first. They had but few contemporaries alike 
precious to our eyes and noses in the garden of my 
childhood — namely, the York and Lancaster, and 
some other Damask Roses, the Alba,i China, Gallica, 
and Sweet Brier. 

To the York and Lancaster — thus called because it 
bears in impartial stripes the colours, red and white, 
of those royal rivals who fought the Wars of the 
Roses, recalling Shakspere's lines — 

* And here I prophesy. This brawl to-day, 
Grown to this faction, in the Temple Garden, 
Shall send between the red Rose and the white 
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.' 

^ ' Albion insula sic dicta ab albis rupibus quas mare alluit, vel ob 
^w^i-fli//^^^ quibus abundat.' — Pliny, Hist. Nat., iv. i6. 

174 



GARDEN ROSES i;^; 

the Rosarian should add GEillet Parfait, so truly 
named, that a skilful florist, seeing a cut bloom 
of it for the first time, would only be convinced by 
a close inspection that it was not a Carnation but a 
Rose. With a clear and constant variegation of white 
and crimson stripes, it is marvellously like some beau- 
tiful Bizarre ; and Perle des Panachees, another gay 
deceiver, white and rose colour, is almost as effective. 
There is another striped Rose, of the Gallica family, 
sometimes misnamed York and Lancaster, but more 
correctly designated as Rosa Mundi, a flower for poor 
Rosamund's grave. 

^ Hie jacet in tumba 
Rosa mundi, non rosa munda ; 
Non redolet, sed olet, 
Quae redolere solet.' 

The Alba and Gallica Roses have almost vanished 
from our gardens, nor do I plead for their restoration, 
because, beautiful as they were, we have gained from 
the development of selection and culture more charm- 
ing Roses in their place. 

Not so with the Sv/eet-Brier. No true Rosarian 
can lightly esteem this simple but gracious gift. ^ You 
are a magnificent swell,' said a dingy little brown bird, 
by name Philomela, to a cock pheasant strutting and 
crowing in the woods, ^but your music is an awful 
failure.' So may the Sweet-Brier, with no flowers to 



1/6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

speak of, remind many a gaudy neighbour that fine 
feathers do not constitute a perfect bird, and that men 
have other senses as well as that of sight to please. Not 
even among the Roses shall we find a more delicious 
perfume. The Thurifer wears a sombre cassock, but 
no sweeter incense rises heavenward.^ 

In one of our midland gardens there is a circular 
space hedged in, and filled exclusively with sweet- 
scented leaves and flowers. There grow the Eglan- 
tine and the Honeysuckle, the Gilliflower, the Clove 
and Stock, Sweet-Peas and Musk, Jasmine and Ger- 
anium, Verbena and Heliotrope ; but the Eglantine 
to me, when I passed through ' The Sweet Garden,' 
as it is called, just after a soft. May shower, had the 
sweetest scent of them all. It is an idea very grace- 
fully imagined and happily realised, but suggested 
by, and still suggesting, sorrowful sympathies, for the 
owner of that garden is blind.^ 

The Austrian Brier is a Sweet-Brier also ; and 
though not so fragrant in its foliage as our own old 
favourite, it brings us, in the variety called Persian 
Yellow, a satisfactory recompense, namely, flowers of 
deepest, brightest yellow, prettily shaped, but small. 

1 Lord Penzance has produced by hybridization some charming 
varieties of this family. See Appendix, p. 291. 

2 The blind Squire of Osberton has been long dead, but I retain this 
description of his Sweet Garden, hoping that the idea may be realised 
elsewhere, for the comfort and refreshment of others similarly affected. 



GARDEN ROSES i;/ 

This Rose is almost the earliest to tell us that summer 
is at hand, first by unfolding its sweet leaves, of a 
most vivid, refreshing green, and then by its golden 
blooms. It grows well on the Brier, but is preferable, 
when size is an object, on its own roots, from which it 
soon sends vigorous suckers, and so forms a large 
bush. In pruning, the amateur will do well to re- 
member the warning — 

' Ah me ! what perils do environ 
The man who meddles with cold iron,' 

seeing that if he is too vivacious with his knife, he 
will inevitably destroy all hopes of bloom. Let him 
remove weakly wood altogether, and then only shorten 
by a few inches the more vigorous shoots. The red 
or copper-coloured Austrian is a most striking and 
beautiful Rose, and should be in every garden. 

We will pass now from Garden Roses, which bloom 
but once, to those which are called Perpetual, which, 

' Ere one flowery season fades and dies, 
Design the blooming wonders ot the next.' 

What a change in my garden since, forty years ago, 

the ^ old Monthly ' and another member of the same 

family, but of a deep crimson complexion (Fabvier, 

most probably), were the only Roses of continuous 

bloom ! and now, among 5000 trees, not more than 

twenty are ' summer ' Roses. All the rest Perpetuals, 

M 



1/8 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

or, rather, called Perpetuals by courtesy, seeing that 
many of them score 0 in their second innings, and 
but few resume their former glory in autumn. They 
are, nevertheless, as superior for the most part in 
endurance as in quality to the summer Roses, and 
they supply an abundance of the most beautiful varie- 
ties both for the purpose now under consideration, the 
general ornamentation of the Rosary, and for public 
exhibition. 

Before we skim their cream as garden Roses, let us 
remember with admiration the ancestral cow. For 
who shall despise those old China Roses, which have 
brightened, more than any other flower, our English 
homes, smiling through our cold and sunless days like 
the brother born for adversity, and winning from the 
foreigner, as much perhaps as any of our graces, this 
frequent praise, *Your land is the garden of the 
world ' ! The Frenchman, for example, as I can 
remember him in my boyhood, who had been travel- 
ling on the straight, flat, hedgeless, turfless roads of 
France, in a torpid, torrid, dusty diligence, was in an 
ecstasy as he sat upon the Dover Mail, and went 
smoothly and cheerily, ten miles per hour, through 
the meadows and the orchards, the hop-yards and the 
gardens of Kent. But nothing pleased him more 
than the prettiness of the wayside cottage, clothed 
with the Honeysuckle, the Jasmine, and the China 




There's a Rose Looking in at the Window. 



GARDEN ROSES i;9 

Rose, and fragrant with Sweet - Brier, Wallflower, 
Clove, and Stock. 

I may not urge the reappearance of this village 
beauty to the modern Rose-garden, but in the mixed 
garden and in the shrubbery the constant, brave * old 
Monthly,' the last to yield in winter, the first to bloom 
in spring, is still deserving of a place. He, at all 
events, is no more a Rosarian who sees no beauty in 
this Rose than he is a florist who does not love the 
meanest flower which grows. Nor must he neglect 
some other old favourites in this family, such as 
Cramoisie Superieure, honestly named, glowing and 
brilliant as any of our crimson Roses,i and forming 
a charming bed, or edging of a bed, especially in the 
autumn ; and Mrs. Bosanquet, always fair, and good 
as beautiful — the same, like a true lady, in an exalted 
or a low estate, on a standard or on the ground, alone 
or in group, composed, graceful, not having one of 
its pale pink, delicate petals out of place. Both of 
these Roses thrive well in pots, but they are most 
attractive, I think, on their own roots out of doors, 
in a bed of rich, light, mellow loam, pruned according 
to vigour of growth, and pegged down when their 
shoots are supple, so as to present a uniform surface. 

When speaking of the Moss-Rose generally, I anti- 

^ With this exception, perhaps, of Bardon Job, sent to us by 
Nabonnand in 1887. 



i8o A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

cipated the little which I had to say of the Moss 
Perpetual (p. 172), and, passing on. to the Damask 
Perpetual, have but two Roses to commend, and these 
only where space is unlimited and the love of Roses 
voracious. A tender sadness comes to me thus speak- 
ing of them, a melancholy regret, as when one meets 
in mid-life some goddess of our early youth, and, out 
upon Time ! she has no more figure than a lighthouse, 
and almost as much crimson in her glowing counte- 
nance as there is in its revolving light ; and we are as 
surprised and disappointed as was Charles Kirkpatrick 
Sharpe when he met Mrs. Siddons at Abbotsford, and 
* she ate boiled beef, and swilled porter and took snuff, 
and laughed till she made the whole room shake 
again.' I do not mean that these Perpetual Damasks 
' are too robust and ruddy, but that they charm us no 
more, as when Mr. Lee of Hammersmith introduced 
Rose du Roi to a delighted public, and the Comte, 
who presided over the gardens in which the Rose was 
raised at St. Cloud, resigned his office in disgust 
because the flower was not named after himself, 
Lelieur^ a most ungracious act, seeing that it was by 
the King's (Louis XVIII.) desire that the Rose had 
its royal title, and that the honour of originating the 
variety was due (no uncommon case) to Suchet, the 
foreman, and not to Lelieur, the chef, Mogador, 
which was subsequently raised from Rose du Roi, was 



GARDEN ROSES i8i 

a decided improvement, and is still very effective in a 
bed, from its vivid crimson tints; but very few of 
those amateurs who may pay me the compliment of 
furnishing their Rosaries with the varieties which I 
commend the most, will, I think, have room, when I 
have completed my catalogue, for the Damask Per- 
^petual Rose. 

It can vie no more with that section, the most 
perfect and extensive of all, which we will next con- 
sider, so far as its garden Roses are concerned, viz., 
the Hybrid Perpetual, a family so numerous and so 
beautiful withal, that two of our most fastidious Ros- 
arians, ejecting from a select list every flower which 
has not some special excellence, give us the names of 
1 20 varieties as being sans reproche, * I have inserted 
in this list,' says Mr. Rivers, * Roses only, whether new 
or old, that are distinct, good, and, above all, free and 
healthy in their growth ; the flowers are all of full 
size, and perfection in colour ; in short, any variety 
selected from it, even at random, will prove good and 
well worthy of cultivation.' ' Roses suitable for Exhi- 
bition,' is the heading of Mr. George Paul's list ; and, 
as an exhibitor, he has proved oft and convinc- 
ingly a knowledge of what to show, and how to show 
it. But I am anticipating this part of my subject, 
and, returning to our garden Roses, recommend, as 
the most robust in growth and prolific in flower, the 



l82 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



following selection : — Abel Grand, Anna Alexieff, 
Anna de Diesbach, Annie Wood, Baronne de Bon- 
stetten, Baronne Prevost, Boule de Neige, Caroline de 
Sansales, Comte de Nanteuil, Duke of Edinburgh, 
Dupuy Jamain, Edouard Morren, General Jacque- 
minot, John Hopper, Jules Margottin, Lyonnaise, La 
France, Madame Boll, Madame Clemence Joigneaux, 
Marechal Vaillant, Marquise de Castellane, Miss 
Hassard, Paul Neron, and Senateur Vaisse. 

Of the Bourbons, although two only now attain 
public honours, there are several which are valuable 
additions to a general collection of Roses. Acidalie is 
extremely pretty, nearly white, and blooming bounti- 
fully in a genial season, when other Roses are scarce, 
that is, in the later autumn. Although it grows vigor- 
ously both upon stocks and, per se, when the soil and 
the summer are propitious, it is but a fine-weather 
sailor, and, Mike that love which has nothing but 
beauty to keep it in good health, is short-lived, and 
apt to have ague-fits.' I advise the amateur, conse- 
quently, to remember Acidalie in the budding season, 
so that he may always have a duplicate in reserve. 
Armosa is a charming little Rose, neat in form, and 
bright pink in complexion. Bouquet de Flore, an old 
favourite, still claims a place for its carmine flowers ; 
and Catherine Guillot, with Louise Odier, having both 
the beauty and the family likeness of Lawrence's 



GARDEN ROSES 183 

^ lovely sisters/ are as two winsome maids of honour 
in waiting upon the Bourbon Queen — dethroned, it is 
true, by more potent rivals, but still asking our loyal 
love for its sweet, abundant, fawn-coloured flowers. 
The Rev. H. D'Ombrain, in the flesh, is a true 
Rosarian, a trusty, genial writer, an accomplished 
florist, as all florists know ; and in the flower he is 
one of our best Bourbon Roses. Not so beautiful, of 
course, as his daughter Marguerite D'Ombrain, H.P. 
(of whom more anon), but an early, reliable, vigorous, 
bright carmine Rose. Were the Roses sentient, as I 
sometimes think they are, this one would have their 
special regard and honour. Mr. D'Ombrain has not 
only been, as it were, the consul for French Roses in 
England, making known the merits of the new- 
comers, and so insuring for them a kindly welcome, 
and the faithful friend of French Rosarians also, in 
soliciting help for those who, residing near Paris, 
suffered severely during the siege ; but more recently 
at home he has established a fresh claim upon the 
gratitude of all Rosarians, by suggesting and organis- 
ing a National Rose Society, and by reviving the 
National Rose Show. 

All the Tea-Roses may with care be grown out of 
doors in a congenial site and with protection from 
frost, and may be strictly included as hardy Roses for 
the general garden ; the most vigorous being those of 



i84 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

the Gloire de Dijon family, such as L. Belle Lyon- 
naise, Madame Berard, Reve d'Or, etc., and Annie 
Ollivier, Bouquet d'Or, Caroline Kuster, Edith Gifford, 
Homere, Madame Lambard, Marie Van Houtte, and 
Souvenir d'un ami ; and of the Noisettes, Celine 
Forestier, Jaune Desprez, Lamarque, Marechal Niel 
(wall), Reve d'Or, Solfaterre, Triomphe de Rennes, 
and William Allen Richardson. 

And now, my reader, as when eating our straw- 
berries in early youth, boys by their mothers', girls by 
their fathers' sides, we reserved the largest to the last; 
or as when, in later years, we loved something more 
dearly even than strawberries — making with the 
Yorkshire rustic our tender confession, * I loikes poi, 
Mary ; but O, Mary, I loikes you better nor poi ! ' — 
we, meeting in mixed company, reserved for our 
beloved the final fond farewell — or meeting, not in 
mixed company, found that the sweetest which was, 
alas ! the parting kiss ; even so have I reserved for 
my conclusive chapters the Roses which I love the 
best — those Roses which are chosen for their more 
perfect beauty, like the fairest maidens at some public 
fete, to represent the sisterhood before a wondering 
world. 



CHAPTER XII 

CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 

When that delightful young officer of Her Majesty's 
Guards, having paid a guinea, some years ago in 
London, to the great spiritualist, medium, or what- 
ever the arch-humbug called himself, of the season, 
inquired, with a solemn countenance, whether he 
could receive communications from his mother, and, 
being assured that this could be arranged, com- 
menced a long conversation with his parent, who 
preferred, after the manner of spirits, to express her 
sentiments by tapping — and when, finally, he 
announced his inability to prolong the interesting dis- 
course because ^ the lady in question was waiting for 
him at that moment (in robust health and in Belgrave 
Square), that they might refresh themselves with 
luncheon,' — he completely demolished the baseless 
fabric of my little dream, how charming it would be 
to have an hour's table-talk with some of our old 
Rosarians. 

I am with them, nevertheless, and without humbug, 

185 



t86 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



in spirit many a time, honouring their memories, and 
always regarding them with a thankful, filial love. I 
like to think of them among their Roses, as I wander 
among my own, mindful how much of my happiness 
I owe, humanly speaking, to their skill and enter- 
prise ; remembering them as we Rosarians of to-day 
would fain be remembered hereafter, when our 
children's children shall pluck their snow-white Marie 
Beauman,! 

'Pure 

As sunshine glancing on a white dove's wings,' 

and shall wish we were there to see. I like to think 
of Lee of Hammersmith complacently surveying those 
standard Rose-trees which he introduced from France 
in the year 1818, which were the first ever seen in 
England, and which he sold readily (it was reported 
at the time that the Duke of Clarence gave him a 
right royal order for 1000 trees) at one guinea apiece. 
I like to imagine the elder Rivers looking on a few 
years later, half pleased and half perplexed, as Rivers 
the younger budded his first batch of Briers, and the 
old foreman who had served three generations boldly 
protested, — ' Master Tom, you'll ruin the place if you 

^ This prophecy, made more than 30 years ago, if not fulfilled, is 
very nigh unto fulfilment, in the lovely rose, which bears the title 
of the Marchioness of Londonderry. 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS i8; 

keep on planting them rubbishy brambles instead of 
standard apples ! ^ I fancy the pleasant smile on 
Master Tom's handsome face, knowing as he did 
that instead of the Brier would come up the Rose, 
that his ugly duckling would grow into a noble swan, 
and that there were other trees besides Golden 
Pippins which were productive of golden fruit. Then 
I wonder what those other heroes of the past, Wood 
of Maresfield, Paul of Cheshunt, and Lane of Berk- 
hampstead, would say to their sons and grandsons, 
could they see the development of the work which 
they began — the Roses not only grown by the acre 
instead of by the hundred, but in shape and in size 
and in colour, beautiful beyond their hope and dream. 
I picture to myself Adam Paul's delight at the ^72 
cut Roses, distinct,' which George, his grandson, has 
just arranged for * the National ' ; and the admiration 
which would reproduce ^ Brown's Superb Blush ' on 
his countenance, after whom that Rose was named, 
could he behold those matchless specimens in pots, 
with which Charles Turner, his successor, still main- 
tains against all comers the ancient glories of Slough. 

Of the old Rosarians, Mr. Lee of Hammersmith 
was the first who obtained the medals of the Royal 
Horticultural Society for Roses exhibited at Chis- 
wick, and at the monthly meetings in Regent Street. 
These Roses were shown singly upon the bright 



i88 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



surface of japanned tin cases, in which bottles filled 
with water were inserted, the dimensions of the case 
being 30 inches by 18. In 1834, Mr. Rivers won the 
two gold medals for Roses shown at Chiswick, in- 
troducing a new and a more effective arrangement, by 
placing the flowers in fresh green moss — a simple, 
graceful, natural combination, unanimously accepted 
by the exhibitors of Roses from that day to this. 
These prize blooms from Sawbridgeworth, the 
advance-guard of a victorious army, were shown in 
clusters or bouquets of five, six, and seven Roses, and 
were the best specimens which skill and care could 
grow of the varieties which then reigned supreme — 
Brennus, George IV., Triomphe d' Angers, Triomphe 
de Guerin, etc. What a royal progress, what a revela- 
tion of beauty, has Queen Rosa made since then ! In 
that same year Mr. Rivers published his first, and 
the first. Descriptive Catalogue of Roses. It enumerates 
by name 478 varieties. How many of them, think 
you, are to be found in our recent lists ? Eleven ! — 
eight of them Climbing Roses, two Moss, one China 
— but none of them available for exhibition. Will it 
be so with our Roses, when fifty more years have 
passed ? I believe, I hope so.^ 



^ We ought to have every year a large accession to our list of beautiful 
Roses. Mr. Bennett has proved by bestowing upon us such admirable 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 189 

Mr. Wood of Maresfield, who had learnt the art of 
Rose-growing in sunny France, was the next valiant 
knight who made his bow to the Queen of Beauty, 
and won high honour in her lists. Then followed Mr. 
Adam Paul of Cheshunt, and then Mr. Lane of Berk- 
hampstead. These were the heroes of my youth ; 
and when I joined the service, a raw recruit, in 1846, 
the four last named — Rivers, Wood, Paul, Lane — 
were its most distinguished chiefs. But our warfare 
in those days was mere skirmishing. We were only 
a contingent of Flora's army — the Rose was but an 
item of the general flower-show. We were never 
called to the front ; we were placed in no van, save 
that which took us to the show. And yet, then as 
now, whatever might be its position, the Rose was the 
favourite flower ; then as now, the visitor, oppressed 
by the size and by the splendour of gigantic specimen 
plants, would turn to it and sigh, ^ There is nothing, 
after all, like the Rose.' 

results of his skill in hybridizing, as Her Majesty, Mrs. John Laing, 
Grace Darling, Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, and Viscountess Folkestone, 
not to enumerate other raisers, that we are not dependent upon warmer 
climates for our more perfect Roses. Why should not others follow his 
example ? My friend Mr. Hill Gray of Beaulieu, near Bath, a devoted 
and accomplished Rosarian, has given a great encouragement to such an 
enterprise by offering a prize for the best essay on the Art of 
Hybridizing, and such a fascinating pursuit would soon be its own 
reward. 



I90 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

Year by year my enthusiasm increased. I was like 
Andrew Marvel's fawn, when 

^ All its chief delight was still 
On Roses thus itself to fill ' ; 

and my roses multiplied from a dozen to a score, 
from a score to a hundred, from a hundred to a 
thousand, from one to five thousand trees. They 
came into my garden a very small band of settlers, 
and speedily, after the example of other colonists, they 
civilised all the former inhabitants from off the face of 
the earth. As it was said of the pious Pilgrim Fathers, 
they first fell, when they landed, on their own knees 
and then on the Aborigines. Nor were they content 
with the absolute occupation of that portion of my 
grounds in which they were first planted. The 
Climbing Roses peeped over the wall on one side, and 
the tall Standards looked over the yew hedge on the 
other, and strongly urged upon their crowded brethren 
beneath (as high and prosperous ones had urged before 
upon their poorer kinsfolk, pressing them too closely) 
an exodus to other diggings, to ^fields fresh and pastures 
new.' So there was a congress of the great military 
chiefs, Brennus (Hybrid China), Scipio (Gallica), 
Marechal Bugeaud (Tea), Duke of Cambridge 
(Damask), Tippoo Saib (Gallica), Generals Allard, 




A Climbing Rose. 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 191 

Jacqueminot, Kleber, and Washington (all Hybrid 
Chinas), Colonel Coombes, Captain Sisolet, etc. ; and 
their counsel, like Moloch's, was for open war. 
They said it was expedient to readjust their 
boundaries ; and we know pretty well by this time 
that this means an immediate raid upon the property 
which adjoins their own. They discovered that they 
had been for years grossly insulted by their neigh- 
bours (Aimee Vibert was almost sure that a young 
potato had winked his eye at her), and the time for 
revenge was come. No, not revenge, but for en- 
lightenment and amelioration; seeing that these bless- 
ings must inevitably attend their intercourse with any 
other nation, and that, consequently, an invasion, 
with a touch of fire and sword, was beyond a doubt 
the most delightful thing that could happen to the 
barbarians over the way. Geant des Batailles 
(Hybrid Perpetual) waved the standard of Marengo 
(ditto), and they sallied forth at once. They routed 
the rhubarb, they carried the asparagus with resist- 
less force, they cut down the raspberries to a cane. 
They annexed that vegetable kingdom, and they 
retain it still. 

Yes, everything was made to subserve the Rose. 
My good old father, whose delight was in agriculture, 
calmly watched not only the transformation of his 



192 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

garden, but the robbery of his farm, merely remark- 
ing, with a quaint gravity and kindly satire, that, 
* not doubting for a moment the lucrative wisdom of 
applying the best manure in unlimited quantities to 
the common hedgerow brier, he ventured, neverthe- 
less, to express his hope that I would leave a little 
for the wheat/ 

Simultaneously with this love of the Rose, there 
deepened in my heart an indignant conviction that 
the flower of flowers did not receive its due share of 
public honours. I noticed that the lovers of the 
Carnation had exhibitions of Carnations only, and 
that the worshippers of the Tulip and the Auricula 
ignored all other idols. I saw that the Queen of 
Autumn, the Dahlia, refused the alliance of each 
foreign potentate, when she led out her fighting 
troops in crimson and gold, gorgeous. The Chry- 
santhemum, alone in her glory, made the halls of 
Stoke Newington gay. Even the vulgar hairy 
Gooseberry maintained an exhibition of its own ; and 
I knew a cottager whose kitchen was hung round 
with copper kettles, the prizes which he had won with 
his Roaring Lions, his Londons, Thumpers, and 
Crown-Bobs. Was the Queen of Summer, forsooth, 
to be degraded into a lady-in-waiting? Was the 
royal supremacy to be lost ? No — like 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 



193 



' Lars Porsenna of Clusium, 
When by his gods he swore, 
That the great house of Tarquin, 
Should suffer wrong no more ' — 

I vowed that her Majesty should have her own 
again, and in a court of unparalleled and unassisted 
splendour should declare herself monarch of the 
floral world. 

Carrying out this loyal resolution, I forthwith sug- 
gested in the pages of The Florist (April 1857), to all 
Rose-growers, amateur and professional, *that we 
should hold near some central station a GRAND 
National Rose-Show — a feast of Roses, at which 
the whole brotherhood might meet in love and unity, 
to drink, out of cups of silver, success to the Queen of 
Flowers.' And I must confess that, when I had 
made this proposal to the world, I rather purred 
internally with self-approbation. I felt confident 
that the world would be pleased. Would the world 
send me a deputation ? Should I be chaired at the 
London flower-shows. Perhaps I should be made 
a baronet. For some days after the publication 
of the magazine I waited anxiously at home. I 
opened my letters nervously, but the public made no 
sign. Had it gone wild with joy? or were its 
emotions too deep for words ? Weeks passed and it 

still was mute. I was disappointed. I had thought 

N 



194 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

better of mankind ; but I was disappointed, even as 
that dog of Thomson's, whose sad story is told in these 
parts as a warning to the over-sanguine. He heard one 
morning the sound of familiar footsteps approaching at 
the hour of food. He said to himself, ^What jolly 
dogs are we ! ' He rushed towards the door, jumping 
and frisking, for he thought they were bringing him his 
breakfast ; and . . . they took him out and hanged him. 

The suspense in both cases was extremely dis- 
agreeable ; but I had this advantage, that mine was 
too brief to be fatal. I had power to cut the knot, 
and I exercised it by writing to our chief Rosarians 
the simple question, ^Will you help me in establishing 
a National Rose-Show?' Then were all my doubts 
and disappointments dispelled, and the winter of my 
discontent made glorious summer ; for the answers 
which I received, as soon as mails could bring them, 
might be summed up in one word, * Heartily.' The 
three men, the triumviri, whose sympathy and aid I 
most desired — Mr. Rivers, king of Rosists, Mr. 
Charles Turner, prince of florists, and Mr. William 
Paul, who was not only a successful writer upon the 
Rose, but at that time presided, practically, over 
the glorious Rose-fields of Cheshunt — promised to 
work with me ; and the rest to whom I wrote (not 
many at first, because too many captains spoil the 
field-day, and too many huntsmen lose the fox) 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 195 

assented readily to all I asked from them. I was 
quite happy, quite certain of success, when I had read 
these letters ; and I remember that in the exuberance 
of my joy I attempted foolishly a perilous experiment, 
which quickly ended in bloodshed — I began to 
whistle in the act of shaving. 

Shortly afterwards we met in London as members 
of her Majesty Queen Rose's Council. The council- 
chamber (Webb's Hotel, Piccadilly)^ was hardly so 
spacious, or so perfectly exempt from noise, as became 
such an august assembly, but our eyes and our ears 
were with the Rose. We commenced with a pro- 
ceeding most deeply interesting to every British heart 
— we unanimously ordered dinner. Then we went 
to work. We resolved that there should be a Grand 
National Rose- Show, and that we would raise the 
necessary funds by subscribing £s ^^-ch as a com- 
mencement, and by soliciting subscriptions. That 
the first show should be held in London about the 
1st day of July 1858. That the prizes, silver cups, 
should be awarded to three classes of exhibitors — 
namely, to growers for sale, to amateurs regularly 
employing a gardener, and to amateurs not regularly, 
etc. We then discussed minor details, and having 
agreed to reassemble, when our financial prospects 
were more clearly developed, we parted. 

^ Removed years ago to make room for the Criterion Theatre. 



196 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

And I thought, as I went rushing down the 
Northern Line, what a joyous, genial day it had 
been. Personally unknown to my coadjutors, we 
had been from the moment our hands met as the 
friends of many years. So it is ever with men who 
love flowers at heart. Assimilated by the same 
pursuits and interests, hopes and fears, successes 
and disappointments — above all, by the same thank- 
ful, trustful recognition of His majesty and mercy 
Who placed man in a garden to dress it — these 
men need no formal introductions, no study of 
character to make them friends. They have a 
thousand subjects in common, on which they re- 
joice to compare their mutual experiences and to 
conjoin their praise. Were it my deplorable destiny 
to keep a toll-bar on some bleak, melancholy waste, 
and were I permitted to choose in alleviation a com- 
panion of whom I was to know only that he had 
one special enthusiasm, I should certainly select a 
florist. Authors would be too clever for me. Artists 
would have nothing to paint. Sportsmen I have 
always loved ; but that brook, which they will jump 
so often at dessert or in the smoke-room, does get 
such an amazing breadth — that stone wall such a 
fearful height — that rocketing pheasant so invisible 
— that salmon (in Norway) such a raging, gigantic 
beast, — that, being fond of facts, my interest would 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 19; 

flag. No ; give me a thorough florist, fond of all 
flowers, in gardens, under glass, by the brook, in the 
field. We should never be weary of talking about 
our favourities ; and, you may depend upon it, we 
should grow something. 

In all sobriety, I often wish that we, who, in these 
locomotive days, frequently find ourselves in our great 
cities, especially when our exhibitions are open, might 
have better opportunities from time to time of grati- 
fying our gregarious inclinations. Why, for example, 
should not the Horticultural Club in London have 
a permanent building like other clubs, of course on 
a scale proportioned to its income, where we might 
write our letters, read our newspapers, and (dare I 
mention it ?) smoke our cigars, with every probability 
that we should meet some genial friend ? Not only 
in London, but in Edinburgh, in Dublin, in Paris, I 
would have a horticultural club, where gardeners (a 
title which every man is proud of, if he feels that he 
has a right to claim it) might assemble in a fraternal 
spirit, as brethren of that Grand Lodge whose first 
master wore an apron of leaves, and whose best 
members were never yet ashamed if their own were 
of purple baize.i As time went on we might have 
a library of horticultural, botanical, geological, and 

^ Since this was written, the * Horticultural Club ' has been success- 
fully established, and has pleasant meetings at the Hotel Windsor, in 
Westminster. 



198 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

chemical books. We might have pictures, after the 
manner of our dear old ' Garrick ' in King Street, 
of some famous chiefs who had conferred real benefits 
upon the gardening world. How glad we should be, 
for instance, to see a good likeness of *the Doctor,' 
and of quaint old Donald Beaton, with replicas from 
the pictures, in the Council-room of the Royal Horti- 
cultural Society at Kensington and elsewhere, of 
Rivers, Veitch, Marnock, and many more! 

^ My dear fellow,' said to me a young person, 
whom, after going through his admirable gardens 
and houses, and hearing his professions of interest, 
I had mistaken for a florist, and to whom I had 
incautiously revealed my club aspirations, * you surely 
don't suppose I should meet my gardener!' And he 
,wore an expression of horror, as though I had asked 
him to join a select party of lepers and ticket-of- 
leavers. * Calm yourself,' I made answer ; ' there is 
no fear of collision. You would not be elected, I 
assure you.' Fancy a fellow pretending to be fond 
of art, and wincing at the idea of meeting an artist ! 
More than this, he who knows and reverences the 
gardener's art (and I would admit no other to our 
club) must be a gentleman. He may not, in some 
few instances, be aware that to leave out the h in 
horse - radish, or to sound the same in honour, is 
an offence less pardonable than profane swearing ; 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 199 

there may even be an isolated case of ignorance, 
that to eat peas with a knife is one of the deadly 
sins ; — but, nevertheless, if he loves his flowers, he 
must be in heart a gentleman. But we have lost our 
way to the Rose-show. 

We went back to our homes. We appealed for 
subscriptions to the lovers of the Rose, and they 
responded, as I knew they would. They responded 
until our sum total nearly reached £200. We pub- 
lished our schedule of prizes, amounting to £1^^- 
We engaged St. James's Hall, an expensive luxury, 
at 30 guineas for the day, but just then in the first 
freshness of its beauty, and therefore an attraction in 
itself We secured the services of the Coldstream 
band — a mistake, because their admirable music was 
too loud for indoor enjoyment. We advertised freely. 
We placarded the walls of London with gorgeous 
and gigantic posters. And then the great day came. 

The late Mr. John Edwards, who gave us from the 
first most important help, and who was the best man 
I ever saw in the practical arrangements of a flower- 
show, appeared, soon after daybreak, on the scene. 
He found the Hall crowded with chairs and benches, 
just as it was left after a concert the night before. 
Early as it was, he had his staff with him — carpenters 
and others ; and when I arrived with my Roses, after 
a journey of 120 miles, at 5.30 A.M., the long tables 



200 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



were almost ready for the baize. Then came the 
covered vans which had travelled through the summer 
night from the grand gardens of Hertfordshire, and 
the ^ four-wheelers ' with green boxes piled upon their 
roofs, from all the railway stations. And then the 
usual confusion which attends the operation of ^ stag- 
ing ' — exhibitors preferring their ^ own selection ' 
to the places duly assigned to them, running against 
each other, or pressing round Mr Edwards with their 
boxes, as though they had something to sell — vocif- 
erating like the porters at Boulogne, who, having 
seized your portmanteau, insist on taking your body 
to their hotel. He, however, was quite master of the 
situation, and upon his directions, clearly and firmly 
given, there followed order and peace. 

And there followed a scene, beautiful exceedingly. 
I feel no shame in confessing that when the Hall was 
cleared, and I looked from the gallery upon the three 
long tables, and the platform beneath the great organ, 
glowing with the choicest Roses of the world, the 
cisterns of my heart overflowed — 

* The pretty and sweet manner of it forced 
The waters from me, which I would have stopped. 
But I had not so much of man in me, 
And all my mother came into mine eyes, 
And gave me up to tears.' 

' Half the nurseries of England,' as Dr. Lindley wrote. 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 201 

* poured their treasures into St. James's Hall.' There 
were twenty boxes from Sawbridgeworth alone. There 
were glorious collections, large and lovely, from Ches- 
hunt and Colchester, Hertfordshire and Hereford, 
Exeter and Slough. But I had brief time, as secre- 
tary and supervisor, that day for * idle tears ' or other 
private emotions. Had I been editor of Notes and 
Queries^ the Fields and the Queen conjointly, I could 
not have had more questions put to me. Had I 
possessed the hundred hands of Briareus, not one 
would have been unemployed. Then the censors 
reported their verdicts ; the prize-cards were placed 
by the prize-Roses ; and then came 

The momentous question, Would the public endorse 
our experiment? Would the public appreciate our 
Show? There was a deficiency of ;^'iOO in our funds, 
for the expenses of the exhibition were ^300 ; and as 
a matter both of feeling and finance I stood by the 
entrance as the clock struck two, anxiously to watch 
the issue. 

No long solicitude. More than fifty shillings — I 
humbly apologise — more than fifty intelligent and 
good-looking individuals were waiting for admission ; 
and these were followed by continuous comers, until 
the Hall was full. A gentleman, who earnestly asked 
my pardon for having placed his foot on mine, seemed 
perplexed to hear how much I liked it, and evidently 



202 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



thought that my friends were culpable in allowing me 
to be at large. Great, indeed, was my gladness in 
seeing those visitors — more than 2000 in number — 
but far greater in hearing their hearty words of 
surprise and admiration. 

* No words can describe,' again to quote Professor 
Lindley, writing in the Gardeners' Chronicle a few 
days after the Show, * the infinite variety of form, 
colour, and odour which belonged to the field of 
Roses spread before the visitors. At the sides were 
crowds of bunches, daintily set off by beds of moss ; 
in the middle rose pyramids, baskets, and bouquets. 
In one place, solitary blossoms boldly confronted 
their clustering rivals ; in another, glass screens 
guarded some precious gems ; and in another, great 
groups of unprotected beauties set at defiance the 
heated atmosphere of the Hall.' 

Yes, they defied this adversary ; they defied and 
defeated with their delicious perfume the foul smell 
which at that time invaded London from the Thames ; 
but there was one opponent, one only, whom they 
could not subdue. They had to fight that day, not 
only the wars of the Roses, the civil war for supre- 
macy among themselves, but they had to meet a rival, 
against whom they concentrated all their powers in 
vain. 

A few months before the Rose-show, I made the ac- 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 203 

quaintance, afterwards the dearest friendship of my Hfe, 
of John Leech, the artist ; and in the first of two hun- 
dred precious letters which I now possess from his pen, 
he sent me the accompanying sketch^ of a combat be- 
tween Flora and Venus, which subsequently appeared, 
more correctly, but less prettily delineated, in Punchy 
with this explanation, which I wrote on his request : — 
' In the days of the Great Stench of London, the 
Naiades ran from the banks of Thamesis, with their 
pocket-handkerchiefs to their noses, and made a com- 
plaint to the goddess Flora, how exceedingly un- 
pleasant the dead dogs were, and that they couldn't 
abide 'em — indeed they couldn't. And Flora forth- 
with, out of her sweet charity, engaged apartments 
at the Hall of St. James, and came up with 10,000 
Roses to deodorise the river, and to revive the town. 
But Venus no sooner heard of her advent than (as if 
to illustrate the dictum of the satirist, " Wom^en do so 
hate each other,") she put on her best bonnet, and 
went forth in all her loveliness to suppress " that con- 
ceited flower-girl," who had dared to flirt at Chiswick, 
the Regent's Park, and the Crystal Palace, with her 
own favoured admirer. Mars. So, awful in her 
beauty, she came in a revengeful glow, and Flora's 
Roses grew pale before the Roses on the cheeks of 
Aphrodite, and the poor goddess went back to her 

' See illustration facing page i. 



204 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

gardens, and the pocket-handkerchiefs went back also 
to the noses of the unhappy Naiades.' 

Returning to realities — at the close of the exhi- 
bition it was my happy privilege to distribute the 
thirty-six silver cups which had been specially de- 
signed for the occasion, and were, as I need hardly 
say, prettily and profusely engraved with Roses. The 
winners were — (of nurserymen) Messrs. Paul of Ches- 
hunt, Mr. Cranston of Hereford, Mr. Cant of Colches- 
ter, Mr. Francis of Hertford, Mr. Turner of Slough, and 
Mr. Hollamby of Tunbridge Wells ; and (of amateurs) 
Mr. Giles Puller of Youngsbury, Captain Maunsell and 
Rev. G. Maunsell, Thorpe Malsor ; Mr. R. Fellowes 
and Rev. R. Fellowes, Shottesham ; Mr. Worthington, 
Cavendish Priory ; Rev. H. Helyar, Yeovil ; Mr. 
Mallett, Nottingham ; Mr. Sladden, Ash ; Mr. Fryer, 
Chatteris ; Mr. Walker, Oxford ; Mr. Hewitt, and Mr. 
Blake of Ware. Two cups were awarded to my own 
Roses, the process of presentation being * gratifying, 
but embarrassing,' as Mrs. Nickleby remarked when 
her eccentric lover would carve her name on his pew, 
and suggesting to a suspicious mind the trustee de- 
scribed by Mr. Wilkie Collins, in whose accounts 
occurred the frequent entry, * Self-presented testi- 
monial, £io' 

So ended the First National Rose-Show. It was, 
as one of its best supporters, and one of our best 



CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS 205 

Rosarians, the Rev. Mr. Radclyffe, wrote of it, * Suc- 
cessful beyond all anticipation ' ; and I went to bed 
that night as tired, as happy, and, I hope, as thankful, 
as I had so much good cause to be. 

The Second National Rose-Show was held in the 
following year, June 23, 1859, at the Hanover Square 
Rooms, the former site not being available ; and 
again we had the best Roses of England, a goodly 
company, and prosperous issues. The general effect, 
although the introduction of the pot - Roses broke 
gracefully the monotonous surface of the cut flowers, 
was inferior to that produced in the more genial 
summer of 1858, and in the more ample and ornate 
accommodations of St James's Hall. But it was now 
more evident than ever that although we had toned 
down our music by substituting strings and reeds for 
brass, no room in London was large enough for the 
levies of the Queen of Flowers. Next year, accord- 
ingly, after a correspondence and arrangement with 
the directors. 

The Third National Rose-Show was held (July 12, 
i860) in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. Here was a 
throne-room meet for Her Majesty, and 16,000 of her 
lieges came to do her homage. 

The Fourth National Rose-Show was held under the 
auspices of the Royal Horticultural Society in their 
gardens at South Kensington, July 10, 1861. I was 



2o6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

very grateful to find such a genial soil and excellent 
supervision for a plant which was growing rather too 
large for me — that is, to transfer to abler hands a 
work which, with all its gratifications, interfered at 
times unduly with my other engagements. Moreover, 
to tell you all the truth, in the happy springtide of 
1 86 1 I had a correspondence which occupied all my 
time, upon a subject which occupied all my thought 
— a subject more precious, more lovely even than 
Roses — I was going to be married in May. 

From that date to the year 1877, the National Rose 
Show was held at Kensington ; and though since the 
establishment of the National Rose Society (at the 
suggestion, and under the admirable administration, 
of the Rev. H. H. D'Ombrain), it has held its exhi- 
bitions, two and three annually, in various parts of 
the country, so that all who show Roses might have 
an opportunity of winning its prizes, and all who love 
Roses might come and see, it has kept its chief 
festival for some years in the Palace of Crystal, and 
never fails to attract a large, appreciative crowd. 

Have I created in thy breast, O amateur, a desire 
to win honour at Queen Rosa's tournaments ? Have 
you an ambition to see upon your sideboard cups of 
silver encircled by the Rose ? Listen, and I will now 
tell you what Roses to show and how to show them. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ROSES FOR EXHIBITION 

As he who can ride exchanges his pony for a cob, 
and his cob for a hunter, and, having achieved pads 
and brushes, where hounds are slow, fences are easy, 
and rivals few, longs for a gallop at racing-speed over 
the pastures and the ' Oxers ' of High Leicestershire, 
or the stone walls of * The Heythrop,' as every man 
with a hobby (I never met a man without one) is 
desirous to ride abroad, and witch the world with 
noble horsemanship, so the Rosarian, enlarging his 
possessions and improving his skill, has yearnings, 
which no mother, nor sisters, nor people coming to 
call, can satisfy, for sympathy, for knowledge, for 
renown. He is tired of charging at the quintain, 
which he never fails to hit, in the silent courtyard of 
his home ; he will break a lance for his ladye in the 
crowded lists. And who loves maiden so fair as his ? 
What mean these braggart knights, his neighbours, 
by praising their Rosas, so pale, so puny, in com- 
parison ? Their voices to his ear are harsh, irritating ; 

207 



2o8 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

they are as disagreeable as the Growings of contigu- 
ous cocks to the game bantam ; and he feels it to be 
his solemn duty to roll those knights in the dust. 

I offer my services as his esquire, and my advice as 
a veteran how to invert and pulverise his foes. By 
foes I mean those miserable knights who presume to 
grow and to show Roses without a careful study of 
these chapters. Not thinking exactly as we do, they 
are, of course, heretical and contumacious. They 
must be unhorsed. Then, perhaps, lying peacefully 
on their backs in the sawdust, they may see the error 
of their ways, and come to a better mind. They may 
rise up, sorer and wiser men, and, meekly seeking 
the nearest reformatory, may gradually amend and 
improve, until at last they become diligent readers 
of this book, and respectable subjects of the Queen 
of Flowers. Be it mine, meanwhile, to teach the 
virtuous amateur how to buy a charger, and how to 
ride him — what Roses to show, and how to show 
them ; first reminding him that he must have a good 
stable, good corn, and good equipments in readiness 
for his steed — must be armed, before he competes, 
with those weapons which I have named as essential 
to success, and which I must once more ask leave to 
commend. He must have an enthusiastic love of the 
Rose — not the tepid attachment which drawls its 
faint encomium, ' She's a nicish girl, and a fellow 



ROSES FOR EXHIBITION 209 

might do worse/ but the true devotion, which sighs 
from its very soul, ^ I must, I will win thee, my queen, 
my queen ! ' He must have a good position, a home 
meet for his bride. He must have for his Roses a 
free circulation of air, a healthful, breezy situation, 
with a surrounding fence, not too high, not too near, 
which shall break the force of boisterous winds, 
temper their bitterness ere they enter the fold, and give 
shelter^ but not shade^ to his Roses. He must have a 
good garden-soil, well drained, well dug, well dunged. 
And having these indispensable adjuncts, he may 
order his Show-Roses. 

' Thanks, dear professor ! ' here exclaims the enrap- 
tured pupil (I am mocking now, with a savage satis- 
faction, those dreadful scientific dialogues which vexed 
our little hearts in childhood) ; * your instructions are, 
indeed, precious — far more so than the richest jam, 
than ponies, than cricket, than holidays, or tips ; but 
may we interrupt you for a moment to ask, What is 
your definition of a Show-Rose ? ' 

^ Most gladly, my dear young friends,' replies the 
kind professor (anxiously wishing his dear young 
friends in bed, that he might work at his new book 
on beetles), * will I inform a curiosity so honourable, 
so rare in youth. I propose, therefore — avoiding all 
prolixity, repetition, tautology, periphrasis, circumlo- 
cution, and superfluous verbosity — to divide the 
subject into forty-seven sections,' etc. etc. etc. 

O 



2IO A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

Leaving him at it, let us be content to know that a 
Show-Rose should possess — 

1. Beauty of form — petals abundant and of good 
substance, regularly and gracefully disposed within a 
circular symmetrical outline. 

2. Beauty of colour — brilliancy, purity, endurance. 
And 

3. That the Rose, having both these qualities, must 
be exhibited in the most perfect phase of its beauty, 
and in the fullest development to which skill and 
care can bring it. ^ 

Of course I do not presume, reverting to the shape 
of a Show- Rose, to propose stereotyped definitions or 
uniform models. On the contrary, I am well aware 
that whether the surface of a Rose be globular, 
cupped, or expanded, and whether its petals be 
convex or concave, a perfect gracefulness of form is 
attainable.2 My own idea is the globular — the abundant 
petals regularly overlapping each other ; but I should 
never desire to show all my Roses of this form, how- 

' Engraved illustrations of the five principal types of Exhibition 
Roses — I, flat, like Souvenir de Malmaison ; 2, globular, high centre, 
like Alfred Colomh ; 3, globular, like Francois Michelon ; 4, cupped, 
like Baroness Rothschild ; 5, imbricated, like A. K» Williams^ are 
given in the excellent catalogue published by the Committee of the 
National Rose Society, and to be obtained (price 6d.) from the 
Secretaries. 

^ I am glad to see that the National Rose Society, of which I have 
the honour to be President, has adopted almost verbatim my definition 
of a perfect Rose, 



ROSES FOR EXHIBITION 211 

ever varied by colour, size, or foliage, knowing how 
much I should lose for lack of contrast and 
diversity. 

With reference to colour, I would explain that I 
mean by endurance a colour which will best bear the 
journey to the exhibition, and the heat of the exhibi- 
tion hall. I have kept this important consideration 
in mind in the selection which follows of Show- 
Roses. 

After reading rule 3, the novice may ask, How am 
I to know the most perfect phase and the fullest 
development of a Rose ? My answer to this is. Go to 
one of our principal Rose-Shows, or to one of our 
most extensive Rose-nurseries at the end of June, or 
early in July, so that you may see the flower in its 
glory. The sooner that the young Rosarian knows 
what a Rose may be, and therefore what it ought to 
be, the better. Many a man's handwriting has been 
cramped and spoiled by copying bad copies and 
using bad pens ; and many a man, who might have 
been a successful florist, has failed, because he has 
not seen flowers in perfection, nor the cultural art in 
its perfection, until it was too late. I have known 
several instances in which men, brought up, as it 
were, among small Roses, have maintained their 
superiority to large ones — I mean to larger speci- 
mens of the same varieties. 



212 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



The names of the Roses which are more specially 
adapted for exhibition, from their exquisite propor- 
tions and lovely tints, from contour and complexion 
too, are given in the Appendix, page 283. It has 
been commended by a Committee of the National 
Rose Society, and it presents to us the careful and 
unanimous verdict of the most successful Rosarians of 
our day. 

Happy art thou, my young disciple, to have before 
thee, for thy worshipful homage and perpetual 
delectation, all these lovely Roses ! But two or 
three of them were in existence when I first began to 
cultivate the Royal flower. 

' Spake full well, in language quaint and olden, 

One who dwelleth by his castled Rhine, 
When he called his flowers, all blue and golden. 
Stars, which on earth's firmament do shine.' 

But these stars, when I commenced my floral 
astronomy, were few and far between, and would 
have paled their ineffectual fire before those which 
have since been discovered. Monsieur Laffay had 
sent us from Paris a few Hybrid Perpetuals, the best 
of which were (of course) Madame Laffay, William 
Jesse, etc., and these were so charmingly described by 
my first Rosemaster and dear friend, Thomas Rivers, 
author of * The Rose Amateurs' Guide,' that we 
regarded them as out of the range of rivalry— What 



ROSES FOR EXHIBITION 213 

could mortals wish for more ? * In addition, we had 
some beautiful Hybrid China, and Hybrid Bourbon 
Roses, which, though they are not adapted for the 
Stage, should be found in all large gardens, Blairii 
No. 2, Coupe d'Hebe, Charles Lawson, and Paul 
Perras ; and with these a large number of Gallica 
Roses, some of them of gorgeous colouring and 
luxurious growth, both as to flowers and foliage, e.g., 
Boula de Nanteuil, D'Aguesseau, Ohl, and Shakspere ; 
but they were apt to display * an eye ' on their 
journey to the Show, and this was as offensive to the 
exhibitor opening his box as the glass eye of the 
French cook gazing on his mistress from the centre 
of the tureen when she began to distribute the 
soup ! 

We had not the colour, the contour, the variety, 
the contrasts, which are now so abundant. We had 
no Alfred K. (K. can only mean King), Williams, as 
splendid in its carmine glory as it is symmetrical in 
shape ; no Charles Lefebvre, a Rose which, as I have 
seen it, at his best, is best ; no La France, in her roseate 
silver sheen, such as rests awhile upon the Alpine 
snow before the sun goes down ; no Madame Gabriel 
Luizet, no Marie Baumann, no Marchioness of 
Londonderry, no Mrs. John Laing, no Reynolds Hole 
(how little did I think that I should live to be 
described as a * splendid maroon dashed with crimson, 



214 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

large and globular, generally superb ! no Ulrich 
Brunner, and no Xavier Olibo. 

We had a few of the lovely Tea-scented Roses, 
Bougere, Devoniensis, Madame Willermorz, Safrano ; 
but we had no Catherine Mermet, no Comtesse de 
Nadaillac, no Jean Ducher, no Marie Van Houtte, no 
Niphetos, no Souvenir d'Elise. And yet our ignor- 
ance was very blissful, even as they who won victories 
with bows and arrows were as pleased as though they 
had been guns. 

In ordering these Rose-trees, I advise the amateur 
to ask for dwarfs or for low standards. The height 
which I prefer for the latter is about 2 feet from the 
ground to the budded Rose, because these lesser trees 
escape the fury of the wind, requiring no stakes to 
support them after their first year ; because they are 
more conveniently manipulated than either dwarfs or 
giants ; and because their complete beauty presents 
itself pleasantly to our eyes, without bringing us down 
on our knees, or requiring us to stand a-tiptoe : but on 
the whole I lik& dwarfs the best. They should be planted 
in November,! the soil just covering the junction of 
the rose with the stalk, and the surface round them 
should be dressed with a stratum of manure, both to 

^ Hints of Planting Roses, by a Committee of the National Rose 
Society, may be obtained by remitting seven penny stamps to either of 
the Secretaries, the Rev. H. H. D'Ombrain, Westwell Vicarage, 
Ashford, Kent, or E. Mawley, Esq., Rosebank, Berkhampstead, Herts. 



ROSES FOR EXHIBITION 215 

protect and enrich the roots. Should they be sent 
from the nurseries with any shoots of great length, or 
with taproots, shorten the former, or secure them to a 
stake, and remove the latter altogether. Affix your 
permanent tallies (I use smooth slips of deal, smeared 
with white paint, written upon with a blacklead 
pencil, and secured with thin wire to the trees), 
because the labels of the nurseryman, even when 
on parchment, become illegible from rain and 
snow. 

^And next summer,' exclaims the ardent disciple, 
' v/e shall have Roses as large as finger-glasses ; we 
shall win the Cup ; we shall make the Marquis's 
gardener, that bumptious Mr. Peacock at the Castle, 
for ever to fold his tail' It troubles me to repress 
this charming enthusiasm, to demolish a super- 
structure as gay, but, alas ! as baseless, as those card- 
houses which the child builds, with the kings, queens, 
and knaves of the pack, upon the polished mahogany 
of his sire. No, my dear amateur, not next summer, 
nor in any summer, with those Roses only which will 
grow upon the trees just commended to you, are you 
to whip creation, and make the family plate-chest 
groan. If you tend them carefully, you may achieve 
small victories, as encouragements to higher emula- 
tions ; but if you would win cups and prizes * open to 
all England' {Anglid in certamen provocatd)^ you 



2i6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

must regard the selection which I have made for you 
only as the foundation on which you are to rear your 
Temple of Fame. You must be as anxious as 
Norval's father to increase your stock — or rather 
stocks — on which you may bud next summer, and 
thus multiply your Rose-trees on the most 
economical, and at the same time, most successful 
system. Therefore I would advise you, if you have 
the ambition to distinguish yourself publicly as a 
Rosarian, to plant in November, simultaneously with 
your Rose-trees, not less than 500 stocks. But now 
comes a most interesting and important consideration 
— which stocks shall we prefer for the Rose ? 

iEsop told the gardener of his master, Xanthus, 
that ^the earth was a stepmother to those plants 
which w^ere incorporated into her soil, but a mother to 
those which are her own free production ; and where- 
ever the Dog-Rose flourishes in our hedgerows — now 
delighting our eyes with its flowers, and now scratching 
them out with its thorns, should we follow the partridge 
or the fox too wildly— //^^r^ the Brier is the stock for 
the Rose, I know that, despite the dictum of ^sop, 
our soil has been no injusta noverca to that foreign 
Rose, which took the name of Manetti from him who 
raised it from seed, and which was sent to Mr. Rivers, 
more than fifty years since, by Signor Crivelli, from 
Como. I know that the Italian refugee is acclimatised, 



ROSES FOR EXHIBITION 217 

and that in hundreds of our gardens he is a welcome 
and honoured guest. I know that the Manetti will 
grow luxuriantly where the Brier will not grow at all ; 
that in a toward season it will produce some varieties 
of the Rose in their most perfect form, those especially 
which have the smoother wood ; that in many cases 
the Rose-trees budded upon it have a more abundant 
growth than those which are budded on the Brier ; 
and that Rose-trees upon the Manetti are more endur- 
ing, and therefore more economical, than Standards, — 
because the Brier, divested of its laterals, and exposed 
to all weathers, is in a less natural position, and 
because the Rose, if budded as it ought to be on the 
Manetti, that is, below the soil, will establish itself on 
roots of its own. I know, in fine, that the importation 
of this stock has been a very gracious boon to those 
who love the Rose ; I know that Mr. Cranston of 
Hereford on several occasions surpassed all com- 
petitors with Roses grown on this stock ; but I am 
nevertheless, convinced that by far the greater number 
of the most perfect Roses may be, are^ and will be, 
grown and shown from our indigenous British Brier, 
taken from the hedgerows, struck from cuttings, or 
raised frorn seed. 

Give your order — and any labourer will soon learn 
to bring you what you want — towards the end of 
October. I have myself a peculiar but unfailing in- 



2i8 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

timation when it is time to get in my Briers — mj/ 
Brier-man co7nes to church. He comes to a morning 
service on the Sunday. If I make no sign during the 
week, he appears next Sunday at the evening also. 
If I remain mute, he comes on week-days. I know 
then that the case is urgent, and that we must come 
to terms. Were I to fancy the Manetti instead of the 
Brier, my impression is that he would go over to 
Rome, or enlist in the Salvation Army. 

Having made timely arrangements to secure your 
supply of stocks before the severities of winter are 
likely to prevent you from planting (should sharp frost 
surprise you during the process of removal, you must 
^ lay in ' your Briers securely, digging a hole for them, 
placing them in a bundle therein, covering the roots 
well with earth, and throwing an old mat over all), 
you must be most vigilant in your selection of the 
stocks themselves. Some gardeners display in this 
matter a lamentable indifference. Their motto seems 
to be Stemmata quid faciunt? — why should not one 
Brier be as good as another? Their budding-ground 
might be an asylum for the deformed, the weak, the 
aged, instead of the school for healthful youth and 
the training-ground for heroes. Let the amateur, 
avoiding this fatal error, and remembering as his rule, 
Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius^ select young, 
straight, sapful, well-rooted stocks, that the scion may 



ROSES FOR EXHIBITION 219 

be vigorous as the sire. Let these be planted as soon 
as he receives them — his collector bringing them in 
daily, and not keeping them at home, as the manner 
of some is, until he gets a quantity — in rows, the 
briers i foot, the rows 3 feet apart. 

The situation and the soil for your briers must be 
just as carefully studied as though the Roses were 
already upon them. These stocks are not to be set 
in bare and barren places, exposed to ridicule and to 
contempt, as though they were the stocks of the 
parish ; nor are they to be thrust into corners, as I 
have seen them many a time. They should occupy 
such a position as one sees in the snug ^ quarters ' 
of a nursery — spaces enclosed by evergreen fences, 
which, somewhat higher than the trees within, protect 
them from stormy winds. 

Watching their growth in spring, the amateur 
should remove the more feeble lateral shoots, leaving 
two or three of the upper and stronger. Suckers from 
below must also be removed. The latter operation is 
most easily and effectually performed when rain has 
just softened the soil around ; and weeds, which 
evince in times of drought such a rooted antipathy 
to eviction, may then be readily extracted without 
leaving fibre or fang. 

The stocks may be budded in July, and I advise 
the amateur who wishes to bud them to learn the art, 



220 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

by no means difficult, not from books, but from some 
neighbour Budhist, who will quickly teach him as 
much of transmigration as he desires to know. If he 
learns to make one slit only, so much the better, the 
transverse cut being quite unnecessary, and liable to 
cause breakage if too deeply made. 

Select strong buds from your Rose-trees. It re- 
quires some little resolution to cut away the cleanest, 
most healthful wood, but the recompense is sure and 
ample. Do not expose your cuttings to the sun — a 
watering-can, with a little damp moss in it, is a good 
conveyance — and get them comfortably settled in 
their new homes as soon as it can be done. In a 
month or so you may remove the cotton — if you use 
bast, a natural decay will remove it for you ; in 
November you may shorten the budded shoot to 5 or 
* 6 inches from the bud ; and early in April you may 
cut it close to the bud itself. You must now keep a 
constant supervision over your budded stock, removing 
all superfluous growth, and having your stakes in 
position, so that you may secure the growing bud 
against those sudden gusts which will force it, if not 
safely fastened, ^ clean out' of the stock. These 
stakes must be firmly fixed close by the Briers, and 
should rise some 2 feet above them. To this upper 
portion the young shoot of the Rose, which grows in 
genial seasons with marvellous rapidity, must be 



ROSES FOR EXHIBITION 



221 



secured with bast. Look out now for the Rose- 
caterpillar, that murderous ^worni i' the bud.' I 
generally employ a little maid from my village-school, 
whose fingers are more nimble and whose eyes are 
nearer to their work than mine, who prefers entom- 
ology in the fresh air to all other ' ologies ' in a hot 
school, and who takes home to mother her diurnal 
ninepence with a supreme and righteous pride. 

Towards the end of May apply a surface-dressing, 
one of those recommended in Chapter VI. — or if the 
ground is dry, a liberal outpour of liquid manure ; 
and at the same time take off freely the lesser and 
numerous Rosebuds which surround the centre calyx. 
A painful process this slaughter of the innocents, this 
drowning of the puppies of the poor Dog- Rose, but 
justified in their eyes who desire to see the royal 
flower in its glory, and who prefer one magnificent 
Ribston Pippin to a waggon-load of Crabs. 

The same enrichment and excision must of course 
be applied to the parental trees from which the buds 
were taken in July. In a genial season, after a frost- 
less May, the budded Brier (in some places the 
budded Manetti), 

*A simple maiden in her flower,' 

will show us the most perfect of all its Roses ; but 
this vernal prosperity so seldom comes, the budded 



222 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



Rose-shoots are so generally injured and retarded, 
that you must rely principally upon your older 
trees — commonly, but not pleasingly, termed ^ cut- 
backs.' 

Moreover, you should have in your Rose-garden 
the advantage of a wall on which to grow the more 
tender Roses, those grand Marechal Niels, Devon- 
ienses. Souvenirs d'un Ami, and other Teas^ so 
distinct from the Hybrid Perpetual varieties, and 
such exquisite contrasts among them. Plant these 
between your mural fruit-trees, or wherever you can 
find a vacant space. Let them be grown upon their 
own roots, or * worked ' so low upon the Brier that 
the junction may be under the soil, and protect them 
with a thick covering of farmyard manure laid on the 
surface during the winter months. 

The Brier, grown from seed or from cutting, is by 
far the best stock for Tea-Roses ; and he who has 
been taught to regard these exquisite flowers as too 
delicate for outdoor cultivation, will be surprised and 
charmed if he can devote a border, backed by a wall, 
and aspecting southward, to Rosa indica odorata 
budded or grafted low upon the Brier. It must be 
thoroughly protected by dense farmyard manure, laid 
around in November, from frost — ^just peeping out of 
it, as a Russian from the eyelets of his furs ; and then 
such Roses as Adam, Anna Ollivier, Catherine Mer- 



ROSES FOR EXHIBITION 223 

met, Comtesse de Nadaillac, Jean Ducher, Mesdames 
Bravy, Falcot, Lambard, Margottin, de Watteville, and 
Willermorz, Marie Van Houtte, Niphetos, Perle des 
Jardins, Rubens, and Les Souvenirs d'un Ami, d'Elise, 
de Paul Neron, and S. A. Prince will astonish their 
admiring lover. 

Let us now suppose that in all these departments 
your loving and patient care has brought you the 
prospect and proximity of such a splendid harvest 
that you have entered your name as an exhibitor at 
one of our great Rose-shows. Ah, what a crisis of 
excitement, to be remembered always in the glad 
Rosarian's life ! It is as when the boy, who has 
distinguished himself in the playing-fields, goes forth 
from the pavilion at Lord's in the Eton and Harrow 
match. It is as when the undergraduate, who has 
been working manfully, enters his name on the list 
of candidates for honours. What sweet solicitudes ! 
what hopeful fears ! Look — Mr. Mitchell is whisper- 
ing to that Eton boy, just going to the wicket with 
his bat, wise words anent the Harrow bowling. 
Listen ; that tutor, with the clever, kindly coun- 
tenance, is speaking cheerfully to his pupil, white as 
the kerchief round his throat, as he enters those awful 
schools. So would I aid and abet my amateur — so 
would I bring a stirrup-cup to my young brave 
Dunois. Partant pour la Syrie — that is, for the 



224 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

National Rose-Show — he wants information as to 
boxes and tubes and moss, as to the time of cutting, 
the method of arrangement ; and he shall receive, in 
the succeeding chapter, the best which I have to 
give. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 

When I first exhibited Roses, the boxes selected for 
the Queen of Flowers were not what royal boxes 
ought to be. They were ordinary and heterogeneous ; 
they were high and low, wide and narrow, painted 
and plain. Disorder prevailed, as at the Floralia of 
old ; and Bacchus again appeared upon the scene in 
the cases which had contained his wines, and which, 
reduced in altitude, and filled with dingy moss, now 
held the glowing Roses. These were kept alive, 
auspice ^sculapio^ in old physic-bottles filled with 
water, and plunged to the neck in the moss aforesaid ; 
but sometimes the succulent potato was used to pre- 
serve vitality ; and I remember well a large hamper, 
with its lid gracefully recumbent, in which six small 
Roses uprose from huge specimens of * Farmer's 
Profit ' — the pommes de terre being inserted, but not 
concealed, in a stratum of ancient hay. Sometimes 
the flowers were crowded together, sometimes they 
were lonely, neighbourless, like the snipes, now in 

* wisps,' now solitary ; sometimes they appeared 

225 P 



226 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



without foliage (at one of our provincial shows it 
was strictly prohibited, and I asked the committee 
what they meant by coming on the ground with 
whiskers) ; and sometimes they peeped out of leafy 
bowers — ' plenty of covert, but very little game,' as a 
witty Lincolnshire lord remarked to the clergyman, 
who asked him, one Christmas morning, what he 
thought of the decorations of a church in which the 
evergreens were many and the worshippers were few. 

At our first National Rose-Show we commenced a 
reform of these incongruities, and soon afterwards dis- 
annulled them by an act of uniformity as to size and 
shape. The amateur must therefore order his boxes, 
which any carpenter can make for him from three- 
quarter-inch deal, to be of the following dimensions: — 

Four inches high in front, and eighteen inches wide. 
In length for 24 Roses, not less than 3 ft, nor more than 3 
ft. 6 in. 

For 12 Roses, not less than i ft. 6 in., nor more than 2 ft. 
For 6 Roses, not less than i ft., nor more than i ft. 6 in. 

LID 



I 1 ! 1 1 1 1 1 1 I ^ ' 'l^ ilCiSI 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 227 

The lids must be secured for travelling by stout 
leather straps. Within the boxes some exhibitors 
have holes pierced at equal distances on a uniform 
surface of wood ; but as Roses differ in size, it is 
more convenient to have the facility of placing them 
where we please, and for this purpose it is desirable 
to have strong laths (3-4ths of an inch in depth, and 
I inch 7-8ths in width) extending the length of the 
box. These laths should be six in number, and 
should be nailed on two strong pieces of wood, 
crossing the box one at each end, 2 inches below the 
surface. The upper and lower laths should be fixed 
I -8th of an inch within the box, and the four remain- 
ing so arranged that there will be six interstices ij 
inch in width — three for the Roses, and three merely 
to reduce the weight. There will be a space of ij 
inch between the laths and the upper edge of the 
box, to be filled as follows : Cover the laths with 



228 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



sheets of brown paper, two deep, and cut to fit the 
box, and upon these place the best moss you can 
obtain. I get mine from trunks of trees in a neigh- 
bouring wood ; have it carefully picked over and well 
watered a day or two before a show ; and then, using 
the coarser portion for a substratum, make my upper 
surface as clean and green and level as I can. 

It would, I think, repay the Rosarian to grow moss 
specially for this purpose, such as would thrive — Sela- 
ginella denticulata, for example — in rough boxes and 
waste places under stages or in vineries. Some years 
ago I placed a lining of zinc, 3 inches deep, at the top 
of one of my Rose-boxes, filled it with earth, and soon 
obtained from it a charming surface of S. apoda. The 
effect of twelve beautiful Roses resting upon this 
bright-green moss was lovely ; but oh, the weight 
when we bore them to the show ! no mother in all the 
world would care to carry such a bulky babe. 

A wee story about moss, and we leave it. I re- 
member an exhibitor, of whom it was said that he was 
never known to pay a compliment, or to praise any- 
thing which did not belong to himself, except upon 
one occasion. Having won the first prize for Roses, 
he went in the joy of his heart to his chief rival, and 
surveying his collection, deliberately and frankly said, 
' Well, John, I must acknowledge you certainly beat 
us — in moss.' As well might some victorious jockey 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 



229 



compliment the rider of a distanced horse upon the 
plaiting of that horse's mane. It was a panegyric as 
glorious as that which Artemus Ward paid to his 
regiment, composed exclusively of commanders-in- 
chief: ' What we particly excel in is resting muskits — 
we can rest muskits with anybody/ 

The Rose, when cut, is at- 
tached by a thin wire to a 
strong but pliable support of 
zinc, part of which is so curved 
as to enable the exhibitor to 
raise or depress the flower. On 
the upper part of the tube, 
before inserting it, write the 
name upon a card in the ring, 
affixed, in the lower part, filled 
with pure rain water, fresh 
from the cistern. These im- 
portant auxiliaries are de- 
lineated herewith in accurate 
similarity, and these tubes not 
only facilitate the arrangement 
of the flower, but they retain 
the water when rough railway porters forget their 
gradients. They may be had from the inventor, Mr. 
Foster of Ashford, Kent. 

The carelessness of porters reminds me to add, that 




230 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

exhibitors who cannot accompany their Roses — a 
terrible separation to the true lover, and one which I 
have never known — will do well to have painted in 
white letters upon the dark-green lids of their boxes, 
* Flowers in water — keep level/ 

The amateur must now have the cards in readiness, 
on which he has written with his best pen (unless he 
has purchased them prepared by the printer) the 
names of his show-Roses. These are cut from ordinary 
cardboard, and must be of the regulation size — 3 
inches in length by i in width. They should be kept 
in a box, divided into compartments and lettered, so 
that they may be quickly found when wanted. They 
are placed sometimes on the moss in front of the Rose, 
but they have a more neat and uniform appearance if 
inserted on sticks about 5 inches long, painted green, 
and cleft at the top to receive them, and pointed at 
the bottom to penetrate the moss more easily ; or still 
better on brass wires, having two parallel rings 
twisted at the upper end, so that the card may be 
inserted between them. 

The young knight will not be armed cap-d-pie until 
he has supplied himself with a couple of helmets. If 
the weather is showery, or the sun scorches, just before 
a show, many Roses may be advantageously shaded 
by having a zinc cap placed over them 8 inches in 
diameter, 5 inches in depth, ventilated, and having a 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 231 

socket attached, which may be moved up and down a 
stake fixed by the Rose-tree, until the cap is secured 
in its position by a wooden wedge inserted between 
the socket and the 
stake. Roses of a 
more delicate com- 
plexion than others, 
and some whose 
vivid colouring is 
quickly tarnished by 
fiery suns, may be 
thus preserved for 
exhibition. Fresh 
cabbage-leaves, re- 
newed from time to time, may be advantageously 
placed on the caps, which, I may add, have a more 
pleasing appearance in the Rosarium when painted a 
dark-green colour. Cones made from Willesden 
water-proof paper are also commended by those who 
have used them as protections for the Rose. 

These caps should be in readiness, fixed upon their 
stakes, in the Rose-beds or near them, so that they 
may be quickly placed in position when there is peril 
from fire or water — when fierce suns come, suddenly 
forth, or when those first large drops, which have been 
poetically termed 'tears of the tempest weeping for 
the havoc to follow,' give warning of the storm. Many 




232 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

a grand Rose have I saved by promptly acting upon 
this admonition, and have come indoors with my 
heart rejoicing under its moist merino waistcoat. 

Helmet No. 2 resembles No. i, except that the top 
is made of glass and is flat. This is used to accelerate 
the opening of Roses, and sometimes with success ; but 
generally I have found that nature will not be hurried, 
and the Rose has been more refractory than the heat. 

In using these caps — and their use, be it re- 
membered, is exceptional — the amateur must be on 
his guard against placing them too near the Rose, 
lest, when moved by the wind, the petals should be 
injured by trituration. And not only in this instance, 
but in all, he must so watch his trees as to prevent all 
risk of that contact and chafing which quickly ruins 
the Rose. Watching the flower as it sways to and fro 
in the summer breeze, he must remove all leaves and 
shoots which touching it would mar its beauty. 

Watchful ever, our young knight must keep his stricter 
vigil upon the battle's eve. He must know that all is 
in readiness, the extent of his resources, and how he is 
to apply them. The day before a show, I have not 
only the names of my best Roses noted in my pocket- 
book, but, ruling upon a sheet of paper 48, 36, 24, 12, or 
6 spaces, I place each Rose in the position which it will 
probably occupy on the morrow, and set my forces in 
battle array. Here is an example, copied literatim: — 



how to show the rose 233 
12 Roses. 



Lefebvre. 


M. Niel. 


Duke of Edin- 
Durgn. 


La France. 


F. Michelon. 


Beauman. 


Niphetos. 


E. Levet. 


L. Van Houtte. 


Marie Finger. 


Xav. Olibo. 


C. Mermet. 



Take any Rose in this collection, and you will find it 
in close proximity to others which, from their diversity 
of colour, will give and gain beauty by contrast. 
Thus Lefebvre has the pink Michelon below and the 
golden Niel at its side ; the yellow Niel has crimson 
Roses on either side and beneath ; the scarlet Duke of 
Edinburgh has a yellow Rose on his left, a blush Rose 
on his right, and a snow-white Rose below him ; and 
so throughout. 

Your beautiful thoroughbreds may not all come to 
the post ; they may not run in the order in which 
you have placed them — that is, some of your Roses 
may be too much expanded when you come to cut 
them, or may not be in size or in colour exactly suit- 
able for the position assigned to them ; but you will 
find, notwithstanding, very great assistance from such 
a plan as that proposed to you : and when you have 
gained by observation a knowledge of the develop- 
ment and duration of your Roses, you will meet with 
few disappointments in its realisation. 



234 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

On the eve of the show you must have all your 
boxes surfaced with moss and sprinkled, set out upon 
trestles three feet from the ground, ^ here in cool grot,' 
or in some sheltered corner or garden-shed ; your 
zinc-tubes, in rows upon their miniature bottle-rack, 
cheaply made, and having a strong resemblance to 
the stands on which ' Boots ' deposits our fat port- 
manteau, heaving a thankful sigh ; and upon a small 
table your box, containing plans of arrangement, 
Foster's wire supports, cards with names of Roses 
written upon them, sticks to hold them, a pair of 
sharp pruning-scissors with which to cut your flowers, 
a pair of small, finely-pointed ditto, with which you 
may sometimes remove the decayed edge from a petal, 
and a piece of narrow ivory rounded at the end, such as 
ladies use for a knitting-mesh, and which, very care- 
fully and delicately handled, may help you now and 
then to assist the opening Rose, or to reduce irregu- 
larities of growth to a more natural, and therefore 
graceful, combination ; add a small hamper of addi- 
tional moss, and the dressing-room is ready for the 
royal toilet. 

When should we cut our Roses ? The nurseryman 
who exhibits 144 Roses in one collection — that is, 3 
specimens of 48 varieties — and sometimes simultane- 
ously a collection of 72 distinct blooms, conveying 
them great distances, is obliged to cut on the day 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 235 

preceding the shows, and having acres of young trees 
to select from, can generally find Roses of such calibre 
as will ensure to him a continuance of perfect beauty 
for the next four-and-twenty hours ; but I strongly 
advise the amateur, who has no such wealth of 
material, and must make the most of his limited 
means, to cut his Roses, whenever he has the option 
— that is, the time — upon the morning of the show. 
If the weather is broken, and the clouds without and 
the barometer within warn you of impending rain, 
then gather ye Roses while ye may, in the afternoon 
and the evening before the show ; but if it is 

* In the prime of summer time, 
An evening calm and cool,' 

let your Roses rest after the heat of the day, and cut 
them on the morrow, when they awake with the sun, 
refreshed with gracious dews. Nevertheless, if these 
dews are exceptionally heavy, you must not cut 
while — 

* The plentiful moisture encumbers the flower. 
And weighs down its beautiful head,' 

but you must bide a wee till the sunshine dries its 
tears. 

Wherefore, early to your bed, my amateur, your 
bed of Roses and of Thorns ; for as surely as the 



236 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

schoolboy who, having received a cake from home, 
takes with him a last slice to his cubicle, awakes in 
feverish repletion, turning painfully upon the crusty 
crumbs, so shall this night of yours be fraught with 
pleasure and with pain. Now shall you taste daintily 
the candied peels, and now toss fretfully on piercing 
grits. Now you shall sleep, and all shall be serene, 
blissful. You are dreaming, so sweetly dreaming, the 
happy hours away. The great day has come. 

' A happier smile illumes each brow, 
With quicker spread each heart uncloses ; 
And all is happiness, for now 
The valley holds its feast of Roses.' 

Your own are magnificent, larger than those which 
bloom in Manchester chintz above your slumbering 
brow — nine inches in diameter. You reach the show ; 
you win every prize, laurels enough to make triumphal 
arches along all your homeward way. Suddenly a 
change, a horrible change, comes o'er the spirit of 
your dream. How the van, in which you are travel- 
ling with your Roses, jumps and jolts ! how dark the 
night, and how the thunder rolls ! Ah, tout est perdu ! 
Crash fall the horses, or rather, the nightmares, down 
a steep incline, and you find yourself standing, aghast 
and hopeless, knee-deep in pot-pourri^ in a country 
lane five miles from the show ! 

Awaking, for the sixteenth time, with a terrible 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 23; 

impression that you have overslept yourself, and that 
the time for cutting Roses is past, you are comforted 
in hearing the clock strike two. Another restless 
hour, and you are up in the grey dawn. At 3.30 
you should be among the Roses, never so lovely as 
now, lifting their heads for the first kisses of the sun, 
and, alas ! for decapitation ! See, your gardener is 
there, keen as yourself! He fills a score of the tubes 
with pure, sweet, rain-water ; he places them in one 
of your spare boxes, and is ready to follow, when, 
having glanced at your programmes, and armed your- 
self with the trenchant blades, you lead the way to 
glory and the Roses. 

Cut, first of all, your grandest blooms, because no 
Mede nor Persian ever made law more unalterable 
than this. The largest Roses must be placed at the 
backy the smallest in the fronts and the intermediate 
in the middle of your boxes. They become by this 
arrangement so gradually, beautifully less, that the 
disparity of size is imperceptible. Transgress this 
rule, and the result will be disastrous, ludicrous, as 
when some huge London carriage-horse is put in 
harness with the paternal cob, or as when some 
small but ambitious dancer runs round and round 
the tallest girl at the ball in the gyrations of the 
mazy waltz. So Perle des Jardins in your front row 
is a beautiful yellow Rose. Placed in juxtaposition 



238 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

to Marechal Niel, its name becomes a cruel joke ; 
your little gem is lost beside the Koh-i-noor, and 
your bright star pales before the rising sun its 
ineffectual fire. 

You will have another advantage in commencing 
with your finest flowers, because of these you will 
have (or ought to have) the larger stock, and will 
thus be able to lay at the same time and in the 
same order the foundation of your different collec- 
tions, using the same corner-stone in each (begin 
always with some glorious Rose, which must attract 
the judicial eye, and make an impression upon the 
judicial heart), and assimilating the arrangement, as 
long as you possess the material. Much labour, 
head-work, and leg-work is saved by this plan of 
simultaneous structure. 

The amateur must not exhibit these larger Roses 
when they have lost their freshness of colour, or when 
the petals, opening at the centre, reveal the yellow 
' eye.' He must not place a Rose in his box because 
it /las been superlatively beautiful. In the eyes of her 
husband, the wife a matron should be lovely as the 
wife a bride ; but the world never saw her in her 
Honiton veil, and respectfully votes her a trifle pas see. 
At the same time, let not the exhibitor be over-timid, 
nor discard a Rose which has reached the summit of 
perfection, and may descend, he knows not when, but 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 239 

let him bravely and hopefully set it among its peers. 
If it suffers from the journey, it must be replaced, of 
course, from the box of spare blooms which the exhibitor 
must always take with him; i but if it holds its own, 
if it is really a Rose of superior merit, nothing can 
now happen which will prevent a righteous Rosarian, 
such as every judge ought to be, from recognising its 
claims. I once saw, and the recollection makes me 
shudder still, a senseless censor thrust the end of a 
huge finger into the heart of a magnificent Due de 
Rohan, in his anxiety to assure us, his coadjutors, 
that the Rose was too fully blown. Oh, how I wished 
that the Due, to whom we voted by a majority the 
highest marks, had been armed for the moment with 
a ferret's teeth ! 

The arrangement of Roses with regard to their 
colour has not been studied as it deserves to be. 
With some few exceptions, the nurserymen aie not 
successful in this matter ; but it is very difficult for 
them to find the time, granting the taste to be there, 
for a minute assortment of the large collections which 
they are called upon to show ; and knowing that the 
awards will be made upon the merits and demerits of 
the individual flowers, they are not solicitous about 

^ The Roses taken to replace others should be in a less advanced 
stage when cut. In many cases they will develope during the journey, 
and so prove most acceptable substitutes for those which, on opening 
our boxes, we may find to be hors de combat. 



240 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

minor details. The amateur, with more leisure than 
the man of business for the study of the beautiful, 
and for the most effective display of his fewer flowers, 
ought to excel, but, as a rule, does not. His Roses 
are very rarely made the most of in this respect, but 
are frequently marred and spoiled, the colours clash- 
ing and contending with each other, instead of com- 
bining against their common adversary. It is told of 
a highly sensitive dame, whose silly pride was in dress, 
that she went into hysterics before a large party 
when her great rival in millinery came and sat upon 
the ottoman beside her in a grand garment of the 
same colour as her own, but of a much more brilliant 
and effective dye ; and I have seen many a Rose 
which would weep, if it could, aromatic rose-water, 
subdued by a like despair. Whereas every flower 
* should be so placed as to enhance its neighbour's 
charms — the fair blonde with her golden locks smiling 
upon the brunette with her raven hair, each made 
by the contrast lovelier. Once upon a time six pretty 
sisters lived at home together always. In looks, in 
figure, in voice, gait, and apparel, they exactly re- 
sembled each other. Young gentlemen seeing them 
apart, fell madly in love, as young gentlemen ought 
to do ; but on going to the house, and being intro- 
duced to the family, they were bewildered by the 
exact similitude ; didn't know which they had come 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 241 

to see, couldn't think of proposing at random, made 
blunders, apologies, retreats. It seemed as though all 
these charming flowers would be left to Svither on 
the virgin thorn,' when one of them was permitted 
to leave her home upon a visit to a distant friend. 
She returned in six weeks bien fiancee^ and six months 
after was a bride. The rest followed her example. 
So it is that six scarlet Roses or six pink Roses in 
close proximity perplex the spectator, and depreciate 
each other by their monotonous identity ; isolated or 
contrasted, we admire them heartily. 

The Rosarian will learn much as to the effective 
arrangement of Roses for exhibition by keeping one 
of his boxes, surfaced with moss and filled with tubes, 
in his hall or in some cool place near his Rose-garden, 
and by making experiments therein, with a view to 
discovering the most pleasing combinations as to 
colour, and the most graceful graduations as to size. 

Nor let the exhibitor, amateur or professional, 

suppose that these matters are of no importance. It 

is true that priority is won by the superior merits 

of the Roses, carefully examined and compared ; but 

in cases where these merits are equal, then the best 

arrangement as to form and colour will certainly 

influence, and probably determine, the verdict. I can 

recall several instances in which, cceterts paribus^ 

tasteful arrangement has given the victory. The 

Q 



242 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

material for operation has been equally good ; the 
modus operandi has been the point of excellence — 
the artistic effort of the more accomplished horseman 
has saved him from a dead heat. 

Time was when the exhibitor had good excuse for 
the introduction of flowers faulty in shape and too 
much alike in colour. Time was (and I recall it 
happily, for we vexed not ourselves about that which 
might be, but delighted our hearts in that which we 
had) when our dark Roses, such as Boula de Nanteuil, 
D'Aguesseau, Ohl, and Shakespeare — our pink Roses, 
such as Comtesse Mole and Las Casas — our white 
Roses, such as Madame Hardy, — were painfully wide 
awake when they reached the show, and our collection 
had ^ eyes' like Argus. We are dismayed now if a 
Cyclops shows himself, even in our ^ 48.' A marvel- 
lous development and progress has been made both 
in the form and complexion of the Rose, and every 
season brings us new treasures. See what we have 
gained in these latter years — to the darker varieties 
we have added such Roses as Alfred Colomb, Alfred 
Williams, Charles Lefebvre, Comte Raimbaud, Duch- 
esse de Caylus, Due de Rohan, Duke of Edinburgh, 
Exposition de Brie, Horace Vernet, Jean Liabaud, 
Louis Van Houtte, Marie Baumann, Reynolds Hole, 
Sultan of Zanzibar, and Xavier Olibo ; and to the 
lighter Baroness Rothschild, Captain Christy, Duch- 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 243 

esse de Vallombrosa, Emilie Hausburg, Francois 
Michelon, Her Majesty, La France, Marguerite de 
St Amand, Marie Finger, Mrs. John Laing, Marchioness 
of Londonderry, Margaret Dickson, Merveille de 
Lyon, and many others. Time was when the only 
yellow Roses exhibited (Cloth-of-Gold was in exist- 
ence, but lived in strict seclusion) were Solfaterre, 
with very little yellow and still less shape ; Persian 
Yellow, in hue golden, glorious, but in size a big 
buttercup ; and sometimes a bud of Smith's Yellow, 
which no power on earth could induce to open, a 
pretty buttonhole flower. Now we have Amazone, 
Bouquet d'Or, Celine Forestier, Etoile de Lyon, Jean 
Fernet, La Boule d'Or, Perle des Jardins, Perle de 
Lyons, Reine de Portugal, and magnificent Marechal 
Niel ! Fancy Smith's Yellow in a modern collection — 
Tom Thumb on parade with the Guards ! 

The names which I have just written again remind 
me how much the Tea and Noisette Roses diversify 
and beautify our show collections. That the former 
are delicate and difficult to produce when we most 
require them, is evident from their sparse appearance 
in public ; but it is just one of those superable diffi- 
culties which separate the sincere from the spurious 
Rose-grower, and which only the former overcomes. 
The conservatory and the orchard-house (there ought 
to be, wherever there is taste and opulence, a Rose- 



244 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

house) are undoubtedly the best homes for the Tea 
Rose ; but in this more genial temperature it blooms 
long before the showman's opening day ; and I have 
seen houses containing many hundred plants which 
have not contributed to the exhibitor a single flower. 
I have tried with these Roses many experiments, in 
pots and out, al fresco^ under glass, under canvas 
(movable), on their own roots, on the Manetti, and 
on the Brier. Wherever you have a vacant mural 
space, or a warm border, I again recommend that 
Tea Roses be planted on the Brier from seed or 
cutting, as being their best ally and friend. Timid 
brethren forewarned me, when I first planted them 
al fresco^ that the winter would kill them, and timid 
brethren tittered merrily when a frost of abnormal 
vigour destroyed nearly half of my first adventurers, 
which had not been sufficiently mulched. Moreover, 
my revered master and teacher, Mr. Rivers, had 
written in ' The Florist ' that Tea-scented Roses 
could not be cultivated with success out of doors, 
unless in the extreme south or west of England, and 
that although in mild seasons they might be protected, 
a real English winter would kill them root and branch. 
I persevered, notwithstanding. If one half withstood 
an unusual severity, I might rely in ordinary seasons, 
and with wiser precautions, upon complete success. 
Defeat, moreover, and the derision of my friends, 
evoked a noble rage, a more determined energy. In 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 245 

my youth I heard a professor remark at Oxford (he 
styled himself professor and teacher of the noble art 
of self-defence, but the condition of his nose was more 
suggestive to me of one who was taking lessons) that ^he 
never could fight until he'd napped a clinker/ Then 

' His grief was but his grandeur in disguise, 
And discontent his immortality.' 

So felt I, and so fought and conquered ; and I advise 
the amateur with a good courage to plant those Tea 
Roses which are mentioned on the list for exhibition. 
Budded close to the ground on the Brier, and pro- 
tected with a thick blanket of farmyard manure 
through the winter, they are always safe. They 
should not be pruned before April, and then sparingly. 

Set up your Roses boldly, with the tubes well 
above the moss, and keep a uniform height. Most 
of the show varieties will hold themselves erect and 
upright, but some are of drooping habit, and their 
spinal weakness requires the support of wire or of 
wood, or of moss pressed firmly round them after 
they have been placed in the tube. Turn your Rose 
slowly round before you finally fix it, so that you 
may present it in its most attractive phase to the 
censor. I have seen Roses looking anywhere but at 
the judge, as though they had no hopes of mercy. 

Do not be induced to admit a Rose only because 



246 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

it is new, or because it has some one point of excellence, 
being defective in others — e.g. a Rose ill formed 
because it is brilliant in colour, or a dull coarse bloom 
on account of its size. The judge will be down upon 
that invalid swiftly and surely, as a fox upon a sick 
partridge. 

Nor place two Roses together which are both de- 
ficient in foliage. Give to each of them the rather 
a neighbour whose abundant and flowing curls may 
partially conceal their baldness. But add no leaves, 
though the temptation be great, because that same 
judge is quick as a barber to distinguish between 
natural and artificial hair, and there may be * wigs 
on the green ' — ix. you may find your surreptitious 
foliage lying upon the moss, and a card, with ' Dis- 
qualified ' written upon it, staring you in the face. 

Step back from time to time, as the artist from his 
easel, to criticise your picture, and try to improve it. 
And when you have finished it, invite others to give 
their opinions freely. Try to ascertain which Roses 
they like the least, rather than to feast your ears with 
their exclamations of praise. You will obtain help 
sometimes where you least expected, and your atten- 
tion will be called to defects which you had overlooked 
in a kind of parental fondness. Spectators, unpre- 
judiced and not akin, can readily point out infirmities 
in the families of other folks. They do not pronounce, 



HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 247 

as you do, the red hair of your dear little Augustus 
a soft chestnut, or a rich auburn ; they have been 
known, on the contrary, to murmur ^ Carrots/ They 
do not declare a squint, as Charles Mathews in the 
play, to be * a pleasing obliquity of the left eye.' 

Have the sticks holding the cards which tell the 
names of your Roses in their places before you put 
on the lids. If you are showing in the larger classes, 
it is wise to make this arrangement when you insert 
the flowers ; otherwise, forgetting names, you may run 
a risk of including duplicates. Moreover, you will 
find the process of naming your Roses after your 
arrival at the show a tedious occupation of time, which 
might be much more advantageously employed. 

Have your lids on before the sun is high, and be on 
the show -ground as early as you can. You will thus 
have the advantage of selecting a good place for your 
boxes, not exposed to draught or to glare ; of re- 
placing from your spare blooms those Roses which 
have suffered from the voyage ; of setting each flower 
and each card in its position ; of filling up the tubes 
with fresh water ; and of making the best of your 
Roses generally, leisurely, and at your ease. 

This done, you may put back your lids, just raising 
them at the front a couple of inches with wooden 
props ; and then you may survey (as I propose to 
do in my final chapter) the exhibitors, the judges, and 
the Rose-show itself 



CHAPTER XV 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 

As the young knight in the olden time, having 
reached ^y^ place ordayned and appointed to trye 
y^ bittermoste by stroke of battle/ became naturally 
curious concerning his adversaries, and, after caring 
for his horse, and looking to his armour, went forth 
to inspect the Flower of Chivalry, and the lists, in 
which that flower would shortly form a bed of ^ Love- 
lies - bleeding ' — so the exhibitor, having finally 
arranged his Roses, strolls through the glowing 
aisles of the show. Soon experience will teach him 
to survey calmly, and to gauge accurately, the forces 
of his foe ; at first he but glances nervously, fur- 
tively, at the scene around him, like a new boy at 
some public school. The sight brings him hopes 
and fears. Now a hurried sidelong look shows him 
flowers inferior to his own, and he is elate, happy. 
Now an objectionably large Marie Baumann obtrudes 
itself upon his vision, and his heart fails him. He 

steps, as it were, from the warm stove, gay with 

248 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 249 

orchids, into the ice-house of chill despair. He is 
much too anxious and excited to form any just con- 
clusions ; and therefore, to engage his thoughts more 
pleasantly, I will introduce him to his co-exhibitors. 

Viewed abstractedly, these co-exhibitors are genial 
generous, intelligent — men of refined taste and re- 
verent feelings, with the freshness of a garden and the 
freedom of the country about their looks and ways. 
Viewed early in the morning, as the novice sees them 
now, they are a little dingy, without the freshness of 
the garden upon them, but with something very like 
its soil. Some have not been in bed since yester- 
night ; not one has slept his usual sleep. Many have 
come from afar : — 

' They have travelled to our Rose-show 
From north, south, east, and west. 
By rail, by roads, with precious loads 
Of the flower they love the best ; 

From dusk to dawn, through night to morn 

They've dozed 'mid clank and din, 
And woke with cramp in both their legs 

And bristles on their chin.' 

^ Pulvis et umbra sumus P they sigh — we are all over 
dust and shady. They are like Melrose Abbey — 
sunlight does not suit them. * The gay beams of 
lightsome day' are not becoming to countenances 
long estranged from pillow, razor, and tub. They 



250 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

have come to meet the Queen of Flowers, as Mephi- 
bosheth to meet King David, not having dressed his 
feet, or trimmed his beard, or washed his clothes from 
the day the king departed. And this reminds me 
that we, the clerical contingent, appear upon these 
occasions especially dishevelled and dim. Sydney 
Smith would undoubtedly say that we ^ seemed to 
have a good deal of glebe upon our own hands.' In 
the thick dust upon our black coats you might write 
or draw distinctly — (I once saw traced upon the 
back of a thirsty florist, of course a layman — To be 
kept dry : this side up) ; and our white ties — 

^ Qui color albus erat, nunc est contrarius albo ' — 

are dismally limp and crumpled. The bearded 
brethren remind one of St. Angus, of whom we 
read that, perspiring and unwashed, he worked in 
his barn until the scattered grain took root and grew 
on him. 

By-and-by, when the exhibition is open to the 
public, we shall be as spruce as our neighbours, and 
as bright as soap and water — he is no true gardener who 
loves not both — can make us. Meanwhile let me 
assure the new comer among us that there are strong 
brains and gentle hearts within those swart and 
grimy exteriors, and that he will find in the brother- 
hood hereafter — so I prophesy from my own experi- 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 251 

ence — many dear and steadfast friends. For me 
floriculture has done so much — quickening good 
desires and rebuking evil — that I have ever faith in 
those with whom its power prevails. But let us 
never forget, while we congratulate and commend 
each other as florists, that humility on the score of 
our multitudinous weeds is more becoming than 
pride in our little dish of sour wizened fruit ; that ^ we 
are the sons of women. Master Page ; ' and that the 
serpent hides still among our flowers. And now, to 
confirm such wholesome memories, I will present to 
the young Rosarian one or two specimens of our 
weaker brethren, that he may learn to check betimes 
in himself those infirmities which are common to us 
all, and which, when they gain the mastery, make 
men objects of contempt and ridicule, I must add 
that although I paint from the life, my pictures are 
never portraits of the individual, but always studies 
from the group — a group brought together by 
memory from diverse parts and periods, but display- 
ing in its members such a strong family resemblance 
that I must guard myself against a natural 
suspicion. 

The Irascible Exhibitor loses no time in verifying 
his presence to our eyes and ears. Talking so 
rapidly that * a man ought to be all ear to follow,' as 
Schiller said of Madame de Stael, and so loudly that 



252 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

he may be heard in all parts of the show, he is 
declaiming to a policeman, a carpenter, and two 
under-gardeners, who are nudging each other in the 
ribs, against the iniquitous villany of ' three thunder- 
ing muffs ' who recently awarded him a fourth prize 
for the finest lot of Roses he ever cut. He com- 
municates to the policeman, who evidently regards 
him as being singularly advanced in liquor, consider- 
ing the time of day, his firm belief that the censors in 
question were brought up from a coal-mine on the 
morning of the exhibition, and had never seen a Rose 
before. He does hope that, on the present occasion, 
somebody will be in office who knows the dift'erence 
between that flower and a pumpkin. Here he is 
informed that Mr. Trueman, a most reliable Rosarian, 
is to be one of the judges. He is delighted to hear it. 
Mr. Trueman is a practical, honourable man ; and, 
having arranged his Roses with a running accompani- 
ment of grunts and snorts, he goes in quest of that 
individual, expresses entire confidence in his unerring 
judgment, and the happiness which he feels in sub- 
mitting his Roses to a man who can appreciate them, 
instead of to such a set of old women as were recently 

judging at , when they ought to have been in 

bed. 

Alas for our poor feeble humanity ! — two hours 
later Mr. Irascible, finding no prize-card on his boxes, 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 253 

denounces Mr. T. as an ignorant humbug, or knows 
for a fact that he is in vile collusion with the principal 
winners of the day — reminding me, in his swift transi- 
tion from praise to condemnation, from love to hate, 
of a ludicrous Oxford scene. 

Tom Perrin kept livery-stables, and in those 
stables the stoutest of wheelers and the liveliest of 
leaders for our tandems and fours-in-hand. Unhappily 
for Tom, all driving in extenso was strictly forbidden, 
and he came, in consequence, to frequent collisions 
with our potent, grave, and reverend Dons. Upon 
the occasion to which I refer, he had been summoned 
to appear before the Vice-Chancellor, Doctor 
MacBride, then Principal of Magdalen Hall, now 
known as Hertford College ; and as the offence was 
flagrant, and his previous convictions were numerous, 
he was specially anxious to obtain an acquittal. He 
presented himself in deep mourning, and wore the 
expression of a simple modest citizen, who really 
didn't know what a tandem was. He placed a pile of 
ancient tomes by his side (Greek lexicons for the 
most part, and Latin dictionaries lent to him by the 
undergraduates), and with his brow knit as in anxious 
thought, and his finger upon the page (generally 
upside down), he consulted them from time to time 
during his trial upon difficult points of law. He 
bowed to the court at intervals with a most profound 



254 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

respect, and he adressed the doctor as * My Lord 
Judge/ ^ Your Grace/ and ^ Venerable Sir.' But 
when the verdict was given, and the defendant 
heavily fined, I never saw anything in dissolving 
views so marvellous as Tom Perrin. He set his hat 
jauntily on the side of his head ; he shut his lexicons 
with a bang, and confronting his judge with a look of 
scorn and disgust, he said — * MacBride, if this be law, 
hequity, or justice' Fm well, let us say, some- 
thing which happens to a brook when its waters are 
arrested by a temporary barrier constructed across 
the stream. 

So does our Irascible Exhibitor now glare around 
him with ' the dragon eyes of angered Eleanor/ He 
would like a revival of those days when ^ a judge was 
not sacred from violence. Any one might interrupt 
him, might accuse him of iniquity and corruption in 
the most reproachful terms, and, throwing down his 
guantlet, might challenge him to defend his integrity 
in the field ; nor could he without infamy refuse to 
accept his defiance, or decline to enter the lists 
against such an adversary. ^ That is to say, he 
would like to interrupt, to accuse, to reproach, and 
perhaps to challenge, but certainly not to fight, for 
these passionate folk are invariably cowards. They 
dare not attack with anything but words ; unless they 
^ Robertson's History of Charles vol. i. 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 255 

possess an overwhelming power, like that suburban, 
pot-house, betting Eleven, who once upon a time per- 
suaded Jimmy Dean to act as umpire at one of their 
boosy matches, and ran him home six miles across 
country with furious execrations and threats to 
London, because he gave a decision adverse to their 
interest at a critical period of the game. 

At one time you will see the Irascible Exhibitor 
standing by his Roses, and revealing his wrongs to 
any who will hear — occasionally making a deep im- 
pression upon elderly ladies, and almost persuading 
very young reporters to chronicle his woes in print ; 
but oftener failing to evoke sympathy, you will find 
him with a countenance, like Displeasure in the Fairy 
Queen^ * lompish and full sullein,' aloof, solitary — like 
some morose old pike swimming slowly about in a 
back-water, while all the other fishes are leaping in 
the sunlit stream. Finally, he discovers some mal- 
content like himself — un sot trouve toujours un plus 
sot qui Vadmire — and they go off together to the 
darkest corner of the most dismal room of their inn, 
to enjoy their woes, and to defy their fellow-creatures, 
over a succession of * two brandies and cold/ 

I know only of one other species of exhibitor dis- 
creditable to the genus. The Covetous Exhibitor^ whose 
avarice has slain his honour. His motto is Money, 
* Si possis recte, si non quocunque modo, Money.' 



256 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

He cares nothing for the Rose itself, sees no beauty, 
and smells no perfume, only for the prizes it may win. 
Truie aime plus bran que Rose^ and will go through 
any amount of dirtiness to get his nose to the swill. 
On the eve of a show he will beg or will buy the 
Roses of his neighbours. He will show several flowers 
of the same Rose, attaching different names. Charles 
Lefebvre appears as Marguerite Braisac and Paul 
Jamain, Maurice Bernardin as Exposition de Brie 
and Ferdinand de Lesseps, Baron Bonstetter as Mon- 
sieur Boncenne, Adam as President, Madame Bravy 
as Alba Rosea, as well as in their own names. He 
knows how to conceal an eye, and to fix a petal in 
its place by gum. He will add foliage, wherever he 
dare. He, too, likes a few words with the judges 
before they make their awards. He never saw them 
in such wonderful health ; in fact, their youthful ap- 
pearance is almost comic. They will find the Roses 
rough and coarse (which means that his own are too 
small) ; or there is a sad want of size in the blooms 
this morning (which means that his are overblown). 

In accordance with the old and true proverb, his 
dishonesty does not thrive. He steals several paces 
in front of his brother archers, but for one arrow 
hitting the gold, he misses, breaks, or loses fifty. I 
remember some years ago, just as we had commenced 
our survey as judges at one of the provincial shows, 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 257 

an exhibitor reappeared, hot and out of breath, and 
* begged pardon, but he had left a knife among his 
Roses/ He had a magnificent Rose in his coat, and, 
' from information which I had received,' I thought 
it my duty to watch his movements without appear- 
ing to do so. He left the tent with a much smaller 
flower in his buttonhole, and I went immediately to 
his box. There was the illustrious stranger, resplen- 
dent, but with a fatal beauty. The cunning one had 
hoist himself with his own petard, for he had for- 
gotten another bloom of the same Rose, already in 
his 24, and I at once wrote * Disqualified for dupli- 
cates ' upon his exhibition-card. Keen must have 
been the shaft which he had himself feathered from 
that borrowed plume, but keener far to feel (for it was 
a fact patent to all) that if he had not made the addi- 
tion, he must have won the premier prize. 

Another failure of empirical knavery, another slip 
between the cup of silver and the lip of stratagem, 
occurs to my recollection. It was my good fortune 
to win a prize goblet, annually given for Roses at one 
of our midland shows, so frequently, that my success 
became monotonously irksome to the competitors gene- 
rally, but specially to one of these covetous exhi- 
bitors who grow Roses only for gain. He induced, 
as it afterwards transpired, two other growers of the 

Rose to combine with him in an attempt ' to beat the 

R 



258 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

parson ' ; and so sure was this clique of success, that 
they brought a couple of bottles of wine to the show, 
to be quaffed from the cup, which I won easily. In 
the afternoon I happened to come upon the con- 
spirators drinking their port in a quiet corner of 
the grounds, and one of them not only invited me 
to partake, but, as from a sudden impulse, and as 
though the truth must come out with the wine, in vino 
Veritas^ to my intense amusement, and to the still 
more intense amazement of his friends, revealed all 
the history of their little game. He declared that he 
was thoroughly ashamed of ^ the job,' and was heartily 
glad they were beat. Truly it was a strange con- 
fession, but I believe the penitence was sincere. 

The Despondent Exhibitor is also an exceptional, 
, but by no means discreditable, variety. He is physi- 
cally incapable of festive emotions — ^ a sad, gloom- 
pampered man,' but a good Rosarian, and a righteous. 
If a cloud crosses the sun, he shuts up like a Gazania 
or a Crocus ; if a few drops of rain fall, he hangs his 
head like Virgil's Poppies, — 

^ Lassove papavera collo, 
Demisere caput, pluvia quum forte gravantur.' 

He never has the slightest expectation of a prize. He 
has had more caterpillars, aphides, blights, beetles, 
and mildews in his garden than ever were seen by 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 259 

man. So he tells you with a slow and solemn tone, 
looking the while as though, like Mozart composing 
his own requiem, he listened to some plaintive music. 
I used to regard him with a tender pity, as being 
unhappy. I used to sigh — 

' Alas for him who never sees 
The stars shine through his cypress-trees ! ' 

but our further acquaintance has convinced me that 
he has a relish for melancholy. I watched him once, 
when I knew, but he did not, that he had won a first 
prize, to see what effect success would have upon him. 
He came slowly to his Roses, and read the announce- 
ment with an expression of profound despair, just as 
though it had been a telegram informing him that 
the bank, in which he had placed his all, proposed a 
dividend of fourpence in the pound. 

Warned by these rare examples against anger, 
avarice, and despond, assured that the horses which 
rear, bite, kick, and sulk, are seldom winners of the 
race, let the young exhibitor now acquaint himself 
with his colleagues generally, and let him learn from 
them, as from men who have not lived in vain amid 
the beauties and the bounties of a garden, content- 
ment, generosity, perseverance, hope. They will tell 
him that the lessons of defeat will most certainly 
teach him to conquer, if he w^ill only learn them 



26o 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



patiently, noting his failures, and making every effort 
to overcome them. Fighting for the prize, he re- 
sembles in one point, and one only, I trust, the prize- 
fighter — when judgment, temper, self-mastery are lost, 
the battle is lost also. They will tell him not only 
how to win his laurels, but how to wear them grace- 
fully ; in prosperity, as well as in adversity, to pre- 
serve the equal mind. 

But which will be his lot to-day? The crisis 
approaches, and the stern mandate of the peremptory 
police is already sounding in his ears, * This tent must 
be cleared for the Judges! 

It used to be said at our flower-shows, ^ Oh, anyone 
can judge the Roses ' ; and when, few in quantity and 
feeble in quality, they formed but a small item of the 
. exhibition, they had, of course, no special claims ; but 
this indifference, unhappily, prevailed long after the 
Rose had become a chief attraction in our summer 
shows, and even where it was the only flower exhi- 
bited. At our great Rose-shows we have almost 
succeeded in eliminating from the halls of justice 
incompetent judges ; but elsewhere the Rosarian 
takes with his Roses a very anxious heart. In the 
summer of 1868, one of our most successful com- 
petitors, a Leicestershire clergyman, who had just 
won two first prizes at the Crystal Palace, took some 
Roses equally good to a small provincial show. Facile 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 



261 



princeps, he was not even commended ; and on re- 
monstrating, was informed by one of the judges that 
his Roses, to which precedence had been given at a 
national contest, ^ were not the right sorts for exhi- 
bition! The fact is, that three varieties of censors 
are still appointed at some of our country shows. 
There is the man who loves Roses, knows and 
grows them w^ell — his judgments will be right. 
There is the man who is a clever florist and grows 
Roses partially — his judgments will be generally 
right ; but if the collections are large or numerous, 
or nearly equal in merit, he will be perplexed to 
incapacity. Thirdly, there is the man appointed to 
be judge of the Roses because he once won a prize 
for cucumbers, or because the mayor knows his 
uncle. The latter is either, in his wise silence, 
quite useless, or, in his fool's loquacity, a dreadful 
bore — dangerous wherever he has power. To the 
second I would say — 

* Cassio, I love thee, but never more be officer of mine,' 

until you know more about Roses. To the first I 
take off my hat, as to a * chief-justice among chief- 
justices,' ^ and wish that he may ever preside in court 
when I have a cause to plead. 

The arbiter at a Rose-show should be a man who 

^ So Fuller designates our great Nottinghamshire judge, Markham. 



262 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



not only lives among Roses, but among Roses in their 
most perfect phase. He should know the capabilities 
of each separate variety, as to symmetry, colour, and 
size, that he may estimate and compare accurately the 
merits of the flowers before him. He should know 
thoroughly their habit of growth, their peculiarities of 
leaf and wood, that he may correct misnomers, and 
detect additions or duplicates. He should regard his 
office as a sacred duty, not only because justice and 
honour are sacred things, but because there seems to 
be a special sanctity in such beautiful handiwork of 
God : and to be untruthful and dishonest in such a 
presence and purity should be profane in his sight, as 
though he lied to an angel. But his duty will be his 
delight also, and thus, having his inclination at unity 
with his conscience, and his love instructed by his 
reason, he cannot fail to fulfil it. Knowing the law 
thoroughly, and sifting the evidence minutely, he 
must give the sentence of a righteous judge. Never 
tiring, when the competition is close, in his keen and 
patient scrutiny, estimating every Rose by a fixed 
standard, setting down in his note-book, counting, 
comparing their respective marks of merits and defect, 
bringing the boxes, if distant, into close proximity, 
anxiously attentive to the comments of his colleagues, 
bestowing the same care upon the ^ cottager's 6 ' as 
upon the ' nurseryman's 72,' he is never satisfied until 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 263 

all doubts are dispelled, and the award of his lips is 
the sure conviction of his heart. 

As the judge enters, the exhibitor leaves the show, 
first turning to gaze once again upon the exquisite 
beauty of the scene, the long avenues of Roses, the 
fairest examples which the world can bring of its most 
lovely flower. The flat surface of the boxes is pleas- 
ingly diversified (or should be) by the stately palm, 
the Japanese maple, the graceful fern, the elegant 
Humea, by Croton, Caladium, Dracaena, Coleus, and 
the like, which not only prevent the uniformity from 
becoming monotonous, and the repetition wearisome, 
but soften agreeably that blaze of colour which would 
be, without such contrast and interruption, too bright 
for mortal ken. These are placed at regular intervals 
in the centre of the tables, singly, or in groups. 
Pretty specimens of the silver-leafed maple {Acer 
Negundo variegatum), about 4 feet in height, were thus 
freely introduced, and with admirable effect, at one of 
the Birmingham Rose-shows. 

And now there comes for the young lover who has 
just made, as it were, his proposals to the Rose, a 
tedious interval, a long suspense, a nervous restless 
agitation. The lady has always smiled on him, but 
what will papa say — ix. the judge? When next the 
suitor sees his sweetheart, will she bring with her the 
written approbation of his suit, even as Miss Wilson 



264 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

returned from the one Professor, her father, to the 
other professor, Aytoun, her lover, having a slip of 
paper pinned upon her dress, and upon that paper the 
happy words, *With the author's compliments'? 
When next the exhibitor sees his Roses, will there be 
a prize-card on his box ? 

He wonders fretfully. He retires to his hotel. He 
refreshes the outer and the inner man. What can be 
the matter with the coffee-room clock ? how slowly it 
ticks ! how the long hand lags and limps ! every 
minute marked upon the dial might be a pebble upon 
the grass-plat of the future, blunting the scythe of 
Time. Will that man with the hay fever never leave 
off sneezing? Will that selfish snob in the corner 
never put down the newspaper ? He will, he does ; 
the exhibitor seizes it eagerly, and reads it, or rather 
gazes vacantly upon it for nearly a minute and a half 
What are money-markets or murders to him ? Sixteen 
closely printed pages, and not one word about Roses ! 
He throws down the Times and looks out of the 
window. Ah, there is a shop opposite with pictures 
and photographs ; strolls across ; has seen them all 
before ; is getting rather sick of photographs ; strolls 
back again ; must have been away ten minutes, but 
coffee-room clock says three. Selfish snob in corner 
writing letters with a coolness and equanimity quite 
disgusting ; he looks up and is recognised as rival 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 265 

amateur, proprietor of Marie Baumann ; something 
about him, exhibitor thinks, not altogether pleasing ; 
not a nice expression ; shouldn't say he was quite a 
gentleman. 

At last the malignant timepiece, having tardily an- 
nounced the meridian, with a minim-rest between the 
notes, as though it were a passing bell tolled in 
Lilliput, and having disputed every inch of the suc- 
ceeding hour, is compelled to give up its match against 
time, and the exhibitor hears the thrilling sound which 
proclaims the Rose-show open. He gives his best hat 
a final brush ; he adjusts for the last time the pretty 
Rose in his coat (be still, throbbing heart beneath !) ; 
and back he goes to his fate. He presents at the 
door his exhibitor's pass ; and then ^ affecting to be 
unaffected,' but nervous as a girl at her first ball, he 
wends his anxious way to his Roses. 

What shall we find there — defeat or victory ? Shall 
the music of the band express to his ears the gladness 
of his spirit, the triumph of his hope, or shall 

* Sharp violins proclaim 
Their jealous pangs and desperation' 

in unison with his own? Let him be prepared for 
either issue. Let him anticipate defeat, as being but 
a recruit and pupil ; but let him remember, when 
defeated, that more than one great statesman has been 



266 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



plucked for ' Smalls ' — more than one great general 
has lost his first battle — more than one Royal 
Academician has had his first picture declined by the 
hanging-committee. Some faint-hearted candidates 
for fame never overcome a first discouragement. 
Entering an exhibition of flowers and fruit at Lincoln 
some years ago, I met a clerical friend, who informed 
me confidentially that if I desired to know what a 
melon ought to be he would forthwith gratify the wish. 
Beaming with complacent smiles, he led me to the 
place of melons ; but when we reached it, his coun- 
tenance fell. The weather was intensely hot, and the 
thirsty judges had obeyed implicitly the directions of 
the schedule, that the merits of the fruit were to be 
decided by flavour. Half of my friend's melon had 
gone the way of all flesh (fruit), and a card resting 
upon the remainder, thus announced the verdict of the 
censors — 

Fourth Prize, 

IS. 

In vain I essayed to mitigate his woe by cheerful, I 
may say humorous, remarks as to the melon-cholic 
retribution which would surely overtake those un- 
righteous men. It was the sort of thing, he informed 
me, with which pleasantness had no connection what- 
ever, belonging, as it did, to that sphere of incidents 



AT A ROSE-SHOW 267 

which he described as being * a long way above a joke.' 
Then, with a stern but sorrowful expression, which 
signified, I thought, that he was going to punish the 
universe severely, in the discharge of a very painful 
duty, he turned to me and said — ' I shall not exhibit 
melons again! 

Let not the young Rosarian be thus daunted. On 
the other hand, if victory comes, let him remember 
always that she only stays with the meek. Where 
success brings pride, then, as Lamb writes in a Latin 
letter to Gary, Commutandum est he ! he ! he ! cum 
heu ! heu ! heu ! and all men shall laugh at the 
braggart's fall. 

Again I say, in prosperity or adversity, let him keep 
the equal mind — 

* Who misses or who wins the prize, 
Go, lose or conquer as you can ; 
But if you fail, or if you rise. 
Be each, pray God, a gentleman 



CHAPTER XVI 



MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTHS 

October. 

I BEGIN with this month, because both he who desires 
to form, and he who desires to maintain, or extend a 
Rose-garden, must now make his arrangements for 
planting in November. Each must decide what Rose- 
trees and what stocks he will require, and must give 
his instructions accordingly. The sooner his nursery- 
man receives the order, the more satisfactorily will it 
be fulfilled ; a timely communication with his collector 
of Briers, if he prefers Standards, will enable that 
Thessalian hero, who 

^ Jumps into the quickset hedge, 
To scratch out both his eyes,' 

to take a survey of the surrounding fences, and to 

place him first upon his list ; or if, more wisely, he 

desiderates the seedling Brier, or the Brier grown 

from cuttings, and does not grow his own, let him 

apply at once where his wants may be satisfied. The 

268 



MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTH 269 

ground intended for Rose-trees or stocks must be 
thoroughly drained and trenched to receive them. 

Commence towards the end of this month the first 
pruning of your Rose-trees, shortening by one-fourth 
the longest shoots, and thus preventing the noxious 
influence of those stormy winds, which would other- 
wise loosen the hold which the tree has upon the soil, 
and which sometimes decapitate the tree itself These 
cuttings will strike, many of them (just as cuttings 
from the Brier will strike), if put in, about 6 inches in 
length and closely in some sheltered place — by a wall, 
for example — looking north or west, and protected 
by a hand-glass ; or they will strike, some of them, 
without protection overhead, if planted in a like 
situation, but deeper in the ground, 7 or 8 inches, 
with two or three ^ eyes' above the soil. 

November 

is the best month for transplanting. Ah, how it 
cheers the Rosarian's heart amid those dreary days, 
to welcome that package from the nurseries, long and 
heavy, so cleanly swathed in the new Russian mat, so 
closely sewn with the thick white cord ! His eyes 
glisten, like the schoolboy's when the hamper comes 
from home, and hardly, though he has read the story 
of Waste not^ Want not^ can he keep his knife from 
the string. Let him plant his Rose-trees as soon as 



2/0 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

may be after their arrival ; but if they reach him, 
unhappily, during frost or heavy rains, let him ^ lay 
them in,' as it is termed, covering their roots well 
with soil and their heads with matting, and so wait 
the good time coming. When planted they must not 
be set too deeply in the soil — about 4 or 5 inches will 
suffice — but must be secured (I am presuming that 
the trees are chiefly low standards, according to 
advice given) to stakes firmly fixed in the ground 
beside them. Some gardeners plant deeply, to save, 
I suppose, the trouble of staking ; and indolence has 
its usual result — debility. Let the Briers also be 
planted as soon as received. Weakly trees may now 
be carefully taken up, and, planted in fresh soil, will 
often make a complete recovery. 

The established Rose-trees should, if the ground 
be dry and the weather fine, have a good dressing 
of farmyard manure. And in 

December 

you should take advantage of the first hard frost to 
wheel in a similar supply for the new-comers, the 
freshly planted Rose-trees and stocks. In both cases 
the manure must remain upon the ground to protect 
and to strengthen too, and need not be dug in until 
March. At the beginning of this month, it will be 



MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTH 271 

wise to give a munificent mulching to Roses of a 
delicate constitution, planted out of doors — the little 
Banksian, for example, the Noisettes and Tea-scented 
Chinas, against our walls. Thus defended, we shall 
feel less anxiety for them, when 

January 

shall bring storm and cruel frost. Though we see 
our fair fleet scudding with bare poles in the tem- 
pest, we shall know that below deck there is life 
and safety. We must make up our minds to some 
losses among the old and young, of the worn-out 
plants in our Rose-gardens, and of the weakly bud, 
perhaps the best we could obtain of some new 
variety, or of some delicate Tea, among our Briers ; 
but, with our ground well drained, and our Rose- 
trees well secured and mulched, we need not fear 
for the hale and strong. Seldom come such piti- 
less winters as those of 1860-61, 1878-79, 1890-91, 
1894-95 ; and though to a few feeble invalids the 
white snow may be a winding-sheet, for the rest it 
is His shield and covering, who giveth His snow 
like wool. Wherefore sweet memories and happy 
hopes come to us musing at the fireside upon our 
Roses. Nor need those hours be all hours of idle- 
ness. We may prepare 'tallies' for our trees and 
cards for our cut flowers. We may repair and re- 



272 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

paint our boxes, sharpen our stakes for the budded 
Briers in spring, and sharpen our wits, too, by 
studying the chronicles of past Rose-shows, the 
manuals and the catalogues of our chief Rosarians. 
In 

February 

the cry is ' All in to begin,' as it used to be the 
showman's when we went to the fair, for no more 
Rose-trees can be planted when this month has 
passed. The grafting of Rose-cuttings on the Brier 
or Manetti stocks, grown in pots for the purpose, 
is now a very interesting process, where there is a 
propagating-house, or other means, as in the tan- 
bed of a stove, of supplying a regular bottom-heat 
to the roots. The art may be learned in a lesson, 
and I know of few things more pleasing in the 
pleasant life of a Rosarian than to watch the con- 
junction of stock and scion, which commences almost 
immediately, the re-potting, and the gradual growth 
of the Rose-tree. Darwin, in a free translation of 
Virgil, has happily described this development : — 

' On each lopped shoot a foster scion bind, — 
Pith pressed to pith, and rind appHed to rind- 
So shall the trunk with loftier crest ascend, 
Nurse the new bud, admire the leaves unknown, 
And blushing, glow with beauty not its own ' 



MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTH 273 
March 

is the month for our final pruning of all save 
Noisettes and Teas. I say final, because all the 
longer shoots will have been previously shortened 
in October. Different varieties will, of course, require 
different treatment ; and the intentions of the oper- 
ator, as well as the habit of the tree, will direct 
the manipulation of the knife. Some Roses of very 
vigorous growth, such as Blairii 2 and Charles Law- 
son, Triomphe de Bayeux and Persian Yellow, will 
not flower at all if they are closely pruned. They 
will need little more excision than that which they 
have already received — only the removal of any 
weak or injured wood. Ten or twelve eyes may be 
left upon the healthy shoots. With the Rose-trees 
generally the question is. Does the owner wish for 
number or size, quantity or quality? If the former, 
let him leave five, if the latter, three eyes, on the 
strong laterals, of course cutting out the infirm. 
Rose-trees grown on the Manetti stock should not 
be so closely pruned as those grown upon the 
Brier. 

Look over the budded Briers. Rub off incipient 
laterals from stems of Standards, and pull up 
suckers. Breaks on the budded shoot should be 

all removed, save one farthest from the bud, which 

s 



2/4 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

should be left a while to make the running — i.e, 
draw up the sap. 

See to your stakes when the stormy winds do 
blow, and towards the end of the month dig in the 
manure left about the newly-planted Rose-trees and 
Briers. 

April 

Prune Tea-scented, Noisette, and Bourbon Roses, 
observing the previous rule — that is, cutting very 
abstemiously when the growth is vigorous, as with 
Marechal Niel, Belle Lyonnaise, Gloire de Dijon, 
Climbing Devoniensis, and Souvenir d'un Ami. 

Cut in the budded laterals on the Briers close to 
the bud, and take away all suckers and fresh growth 
iipon the Brier itself Have your stakes firmly driven 
into the ground by the side of each stock, and rising 
about two feet above it. Watch the growth of the 
bud, securing the young, tender shoot with bast to 
the stake, so that it may be safe against sudden 
gusts, and look out at the same time for the grub. 
For now 

* Read, ye who run, the awful truth, 
With which I charge my page, — 
A worm is in the bud ' 

of the Roses, and towards the end of this month 



MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTH 275 

the Rose-grub (what an amalgamation of the lovely 
and the loathsome!) must be sought for constantly 
and closely. The search must be continued during 
the early part of 

and the pest will be found hidden in the curled leaf, 
from which he would presently attack the Rose, as a 
burglar conceals himself in the shrubbery before he 
breaks into the drawing-room. Of all the months, 
this to the Rosarian brings most anxiety. Nothing 
so adverse to his Roses as late vernal frosts, cold, 
starving nights in May. The sap is checked, the 
circulation of Rose-blood is impeded, and weakness 
and disease follow inevitably. The trees, which were 
growing luxuriantly, suddenly cease to make further 
progress. They look well to the eye ; the inexperi- 
enced apprehends no injury ; but the disease is there, 
and the symptoms will soon show themselves. Wisely 
did our forefathers fix their Rogation Days at this 
most perilous time. Wisely did priest and people 
go together round the boundary fields, with earnest 
prayer that they might in due time enjoy the kindly 
fruits of the earth. Even the heathen kept his days 
of Rogation, and besought his gods ^ ut omnia bene 
efflorescerent and shall the Christian call it super- 
stition to invoke the blessings of Heaven upon corn- 



2/6 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

field and pasture, orchard and garden, fruit and 
flower ? 

Examine the new growth of your established Rose- 
trees, and when you think that it is too abundant, 
rub off here and there those breaking buds which 
might weaken the plant, and prevent a wholesome 
circulation of air through the crowded ^ head ' of the 
Rose-tree. 

A surface application of manure, as previously 
recommended, should now be laid on the surface 
of the soil, and this liberality may be extended to 
the Briers also. 

Order your selection of new Roses in pots from 
the nursery, re-potting those of which you have the 
best hope, and keep them under glass for a time, so 
jthat in 

June 

you may bud them on some of your most forward 
stocks ; and then, by turning them out of their pots 
into the open ground, and by encouraging them in 
every way to make a fresh growth, you may obtain 
a second supply of buds in the autumn, when you 
will know more as to their merits. 

If May has been genial, June will be glorious. If 
not, we shall have ^/le aphis^ honey-dew^ mildew^ rust^ 
larva of saw-fiy^ swarming like voracious ravens to 



MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTH 277 

peck at the wounded stag, until the poor Rosarian 
is nearly driven out of his wits, as Mons. Vibert was 
driven from his nursery near Paris to St. Denis, by 
the ver blanc (grub of the cockchafer), which de- 
stroyed all before it. Reaumur made a calculation 
that, in five generations, an aphis might be the pro- 
genitor of 5,904,900,000 descendants ; and a writer in 
the Entomological Magazine (No. iii. p. 217) com- 
municates the result of much careful observation as 
follows : — ' Insects in general come from an egg ; 
then turn to a caterpillar, which does nothing but 
eat ; then to a chrysalis, which does nothing but 
sleep ; then to a perfect butterfly, which does nothing 
but increase its kind. But the aphis proceeds alto- 
gether on another system. The young ones are born 
exactly like the old ones, but less. They stick their 
beak through the rind, and begin drawing up sap 
when only a day old, and go on quietly sucking 
away for seven or eight days ; and then, without 
love, courtship, or matrimony, each individual begins 
bringing forth young ones, and continues to do so 
for months, at the rate of from twelve to eighteen 
daily. 

What is the cure? There is none. You may brush, 
you may powder, you may syringe, you may dip, you 
may mix your tobacco-water — your decoction of 
quasia ; but where the aphis has once taken pos- 



2/8 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 

session, you shall not see the Rose in its integrity. 
The injury was done before the aphis came. 

But there is something better than cure — there is 
p7'evention. The aphis finds no food when the Rose- 
tree is in perfect health ; it will not taste the sap 
which is pure and untainted ; it is a leech which 
sucks bad blood only. If situation, soil, and super- 
vision be such as I have suggested, nothing but 
weather of unusual severity will bring aphis or 
harm to the Rose. Once upon a time a Rosarian 
asked me * what I did with the green-fly ? ' I told 
him truthfully that they never troubled me ; and I 
suppose I spoke too conceitedly ; for soon after- 
wards they attacked me in force for the first time 
since I understood the art of Rose-growing. But 
in that year (1873) the bitterness of May was extra- 
ordinary, as the farmer, the fruitist, and the florist 
know to their cost ; and it was evident, in the dull 
look of the leaf, that the trees were frost-bitten, and 
that the usual consequences must come. 

Early in June, the Roses intended for exhibition 
should be disbudded ; that is, all buds should be 
removed except one or two of the largest and most 
central. I believe that the late Mr. Keynes, of 
Salisbury, was the first, at the suggestion of Mr. Gill, 
his foreman, to try this experiment, and the superior 
size of his Roses, soon made the practice general. 



MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTH 279 

Towards the end of the month, and at the begin- 
ning of 

July, 

we have the Rose-shows, of which I have said my 
say ; and after these we must bud our Briers with 
those varieties which a keen and constant observation 
at home and elsewhere, in our gardens and at the 
shows, has taught us to admire the most. Ample 
instructions, wath cleverly drawn illustrations, are 
given by writers upon the Rose as to the art of 
budding ; but an experienced gardener, with a sharp 
knife and a hank of thick cotton, somewhat resem- 
bling that used for lamps, of bast, China, or Raffia 
grass, will teach the amateur far more quickly and 
effectively than he can possibly be taught by 
books. 

Should mildew make its appearance, remove the 
leaves most affected, and cover the rest with flower of 
sulphur when the tree is wet from shower or syringe, 
giving them another good washing next day. Mr. 
River recommends soot as a remedy, and kindly sent 
me in a letter, some years ago, the result of a 
successful experiment. * Have you mildew ? ' he asks 
— ^try soot. Some time towards the end of July a 
batch of Hybrid Perpetuals, fine plants in pots, were 
white with mildew. Perry ' (his foreman) ^ tried 



28o 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



sulphur without end, and at last in desperation 
smothered them with soot, in the dew of the morning. 
This rested on them for four or five days, and was 
then washed off. The effect was marvellous : the 
mildew disappeared, the leaves turned to a dark 
green, the buds opened freely, and the flowers were 
brilliant/ 

That yellow-bellied abomination, the grub which 
produces the saw-fly, in this month attacks the Rose, 
sucking the sap from underneath the leaf, and chang- 
ing the colour of the part on which he has fed from 
bright green to dirty brown. The process of 
^ scrunching ' is disagreeable, but it must be done. 

During the continuous droughts which frequently 
occur in July, it is desirable, of course, to water every 
evening, where water and waterers can be had in 
abundance. Everywhere I would advise that the 
surface of the beds be loosened from time to time 
with the hoe. It will thus retain for a much longer 
period the moisture of nocturnal dews. But there is 
nothing like a mulching of farmyard manure. 

Fading Roses should be removed from the tree, 
and preserved for the pot pourri jar. The other 
flowers of the garden perish, but — 

* Sweet Roses do not so :— 
Of their sweet deaths are sweeter odours made.' 



MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTH 281 
August 

IS also a propitious month for budding ; but if the 
weather is hot and the ground parched, it will be 
desirable to give the beds a good drenching with 
water * when the evening sun is low.' 

The cotton may be removed from the Briers budded 
in July ; it should remain about a month or six 
weeks upon the stock. 

Cuttings may be taken at the beginning of the 
month from the ripened shoots. These must be 
removed at the point from which they grow from the 
old wood, and a slip of this w^ood must be cut off 
with them, forming ^a heel' in gardener's phraseology. 
The cuttings about 3 inches long, should be inserted 
to the depth of i inch, round the edge of a pot filled 
with a light rich soil of leaf-mould and loam, with an 
abundance of silver sand ; and being well pressed 
round the roots, and well watered through the rose, 
should be put in a frame under a north wall until 
they have * callused.' They should then be placed in 
bottom-heat under glass, and when rooted should be 
dignified with pots of their own, restored for a little 
while to heat, and then gradually inured to the air, 
grown on, and repotted. 

September 

brings us little to do, except to remove suckers and 



282 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



weeds, and to enjoy our second harvest of Roses. It 
IS but the gleaning of the grapes, the echo of the 
chorus, the after-glow of the sun ; but our happiness 
among the autumnal Roses is, I think, more intense 
than ever. We can appreciate them more calmly 
than when our eyes were dazzled by their over- 
powering splendour, our attention distracted by their 
infinite number, and our nervous system excited by 
the shows. And we cling to them more fondly — so 
soon to leave us ! 

To leave our gardens, but not our hearts. When, 
at the end of this month, the chill evenings come, and 
curtains are drawn and bright fires glow, who is so 
happy as the Rose-grower, with the new catalogues 
before him ? The likeness so faithfully painted from 
the life presents to him the original in all her grace 
and beauty ; and over his glass of Larose, if he has 
one by him, he utters the loyal desire of his heart 

'Floreat Regina Florum!' 



APPENDIX 



A List of Exhibition and Garden Roses 

Compiled by a Select Com??tittee of the National Rose Society 
in the year 1893. With Additio7is (^printed in italics) 
from that date to the present^ by Mr. Benjamin Cant, 
of the Rose Nurseries^ Colchester, 



EXHIBITION ROSES. 



HYBRID PERPETUALS. 

Where varieties are described as ' Good in autttjun^^ they flower freely a 

secojtd time. 

Abel Carriere. Crimson-maroon with purplish shading. Best of its 
colour. 

A. K. Williams. Bright carmine-red. Good in autumn ; exquisitely 
* finished.' 

Alfred Colomb. Bright carmine-red. Late, fragrant, and always 
good. 

Alfred Dumesnil. Rosy crimson. Distinct in colour ; fragrant. 
Alphonse Soupert. Bright rose. A free- flowering, showy, early Rose. 
Annie Wood. Bright red. Good in autumn ; very fragrant ; best on 
' cutbacks.' 

Auguste Rigotard. Light carmine. Good in autumn ; fine foliage. 

Baroness Rothschild. Light pink. One of the best light Roses, late 
flowering ; good in autumn ; scentless. " . 

Beauty of Waltham. Rosy crimson. Hardy, free -^flowering, and 
fragrant. . ' ■ 

Camille Bernardin. Light crimson, paler on the edgesr- A very cer- 
tain Rose ; fragrant. 

Captain Hay ward.* Bright carmine - crimson. Veiy bright Rose; 
excellent under glass. 

Charles Darwin. Brow^iish- crimson. Good in autumn ; distinct in 
colour. ' 

283 



284 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



Charles Gater. Brownish-crimson. Best on * cutbacks.' 
Charles Lefebvre. ]^ rv,- r.-uu.-D 

Marguerite Brassac. L Purplish-crimson. One of the best Roses 

Paul JamaiQ. J S^'^^^ ' ^^^^ fragrant. 

Clio. Pinkish flesh. Free-flowering and distinct. 
Comte de Paris. Crimson, tinted with red. A good useful Rose. 
Comte Raimbaud. Clear crimson. A good and reliable Rose. 
Comtesse de Choiseul. BriUiant red. A fine hot-season Rose ; best 
on 'cutbacks.' 

Comtesse de Ludre. Carmine-red. A good and reliable Rose. 
Comtesse d'Oxford. Carmine, with violet shade. Fine foHage ; a 
reliable Rose. 

Countess of Rosebery. Cherry carmine-rose. Handsome foliage. 

Crown Prince. Deep purplish-crimson. Very free-flowering. 

Devienne Lamy. Dark reddish-crimson. Fine in autumn ; of good 
form ; requires brier stock. 

Dr. Andry. Bright crimson. One of the best and most reliable Roses. 

Dr. Sewell. Violet-crimson. Best on maiden plants ; early and dis- 
tinct in colour. 

Duchess of Bedford. Light scarlet-crimson. A beautiful vivid Rose. 
Duchesse de Morny. Silveiy-rose. Distinct in colour, free-flowering, 

and good in autumn. 
Duchesse de Vallombrosa. Flesh, changing to white. Good and 

free-flowering ; impatient of wet. 
Duke of Connaught. Bright velvety crimson. A free autumnal 

bloomer ; rather small ; very hardy. 
Duke of Edinburgh. Scarlet-crimson. One of the most brilliant ; 

good in autumn. 

Duke of Fife. Rich crimson-scarlet. Very good in dull weather. 

Duke of Teck. Light crimson-scarlet. Very bright in colour. 

"Duke of Wellington. 1 • t.. i i j • at j- • • 

Rosieriste Jacobs. / Bright shaded crimson. Medmm m size. 

Dupuy Jamain. Bright cerise. Very reliable, free-flowering and 

hardy ; good in autumn. 
Earl of Dufiferin. Dark crimson, shaded maroon. Late flowering; 

fragrant ; drooping habit. 
Earl of Pembroke. Brownish-crimson. Distinct in colour and very 

good in autumn. 

Eclair. Vivid scarlet-crimson. Best on ' cutbacks finest in autumn. 
Ella Gordon. Cherry-crimson. A bright form of Mme. V. Verdier ; 
good in autumn. 

Etienne Levet. Carmine-rose. The finest of the shell-petaled Roses. 
Eugenie Verdier. \ Light salmon-rose, deeper centre. Distinct in 

Marie Finger. / colour ; good in autumn. 
Exposition de Brie. Shaded crimson. A good reliable Rose ; fragrant. 
E. Y. Teas. Bright red. Free-flowering and reliable, but rather small; 
fragrant. 

Ferdinand de Lesseps. Shaded crimson. A good reliable Rose ; 
fragrant. 

Fisher Holmes. Shaded crimson-scarlet. Very free-flowering, but 
rather thin.' 



APPENDIX 



285 



Frangois Michelon. Deep rose, reverse of petals silvery. Fine, but 

almost a summer Rose ; long, slender growth. 
General Jacqueminot. Bright scarlet-crimson. A fine free-flowering 

Rose ; thin ; fragrant. 
Grand Mogul. Maroon-crimson, shaded. Very rich in colour. 
Gustave Piganeau. Shaded carmine. Best on * maidens'; thoroughly 

perpetual. 

Harrison Weir. Velvety scarlet-crimson. A distinct bright Rose ; 
fragrant. 

Heinricli Schultheis. Pinkish rose. Charming in colour when first 

open ; fragrant. 
Helen Keller, Rosy cerise. Distinct and very good. 
Her Majesty. Pale rose. Flowers exceptionally large and of great 

substance ; requires brier. Gold Medal N.R.S. 
Horace Vernet. Scarlet-crimson, dark shaded. Best on * maidens.' 



Jeannie Dickson. Soft silvery-rose. Distinct in colour and free- 
flowering. 

John Stuart Mill. Bright rosy-crimson. A good late Rose. 

Lady Helen Stewart. Very bright scarlet-crimson. Very free-flower- 
ing ; rather small. 

Lady SheflBeld. Silvery cerise. Distinct in colour ; rather late. 

La Rosi^re. Crimson-maroon. The freest-flowering of all the dark 
Roses. 

Le Havre. Vermilion-red. A good lasting flower of medium size. 
Louis Van Houtte. Deep crimson, shaded maroon. A grand dark 
Rose. 

Mme. Eugene Verdier. Silvery-rose. A fine large-petaled Rose. 

Mme. Gabriel Luizet. Light silvery-pink. Most distinct in colour ; 
not thoroughly perpetual ; fragrant. 

Mme. Henri Pereire. Crimson, shaded scarlet. Very free-flowering. 

Mme. Lacharme. Nearly white. Good only in dry seasons. 

Mme. Victor Verdier. Clear light crimson. One of the freest flower- 
ing and best crimson Roses ; good in autumn. 

Magna Charta. Bright pink, sufl"used with carmine. Large and 
showy ; almost a summer Rose. 

Marchioness of Downshire. Pink, shaded with rose. A good show 
Rose. 

Marchioness of Duflferin. Pink. Gold medal N.R,S. 
Marchioness of Londonderry. Ivory white. A fine addition to white 
show Roses. 

Margaret Dickson. Ivory white. Gold medal N. R. S. 
Marguerite Brassac. Purplish-crimson. One of the best Roses grown ; 
very fragrant. 

Marguerite de St. Amand. Clear rosy-flesh. A good reliable Rose. 
Marie Baumann. Soft carmine -red. A grand exhibition Rose ; 
fragrant. 

Marie Cointet. Flesh pink. Best on ' maidens. ' 
Marie Finger. Light salmon-rose, deeper centre. Distinct in colour ; 
good in autumn. 




Very rich in colour. 



286 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



Marie Rady. \ Brilliant red. A fine hot -season Rose ; best 

Comtesse de Choiseul. / on ' cutbacks. ' 
Marie Verdier. Pure rose. Large and fine-petaled. 
Marquise de Castellane. Clear cherry-rose. Stout, bold, and free- 
flowering. 
Maurice Bernardin. *| 

Exposition de Brie. I Shaded crimson. A good reliable Rose ; 
Ferdinand de Lesseps. j fragrant. 
Sir Garnet Wolseiey. J 
Merveille de Lyon. AMiiie. One of the best white Roses. 
Monsieur Noman. Pale rosy-pink. Best from maiden plants ; a fine- 
weather Rose ; early. 
Mrs. Baker. Bright cherry-rose. A bright rose of the Victor Verdier 
race ; early. 

Mrs. Harkness. Pinkish blush. Good in cool weather. 

Mrs. Jolin Laing. Rosy-pink. A continuous bloomer ; few Roses 

have so many good qualities. Gold medal N. R.S. 
Mrs. R. G. Sharman Crawford. Rosy-pink. A good addition to 

show Roses. 

Paul Jamain. Purplish- crimson. One of the best Roses grown ; very 
fragrant. 

Pierre Netting. Deep crimson, shaded violet. Requires fine weather; 

very fragrant ; uncertain. 
Pride of Reigate. Carmine, with violet shade, striped with white. A 

striped Comtesse d' Oxford. 
Pride of Waltliam. Light salmon-pink, shaded violet. Similar in 

growth and foliage to Comtesse d' Oxford. 
Prince Arthur. Bright crimson. A free-flowering and bright form of 

General Jacque??iiiiot. 
Prince CamiUe de Rohan. ) Crimson-maroon. The freest-flowering of 

La Rosiere. j all the dark Roses. 

Reynolds Hole. Deep maroon, flushed with scarlet. A good dark 

Rose ; requires tlie brier ; late. 
Rosieriste Jacobs. Bright shaded crimson. Medium in size. 
Salamander. Bright crimson. Gold medal N. R.S. 
Senateur Vaisse. Bright crimson. The best of the old crimson Roses ; 

good in autumn. 

Sir Garnet Wolseiey. Shaded crimson. A good reliable Rose ; 
fragrant. 

Sir Rowland Hill. Deep velvety plum. A sport from Charles 
Lefebvre. Gold medal N. R.S. 

Star of "Waltham. Carmine, shaded violet. Splendid foliage ; a fine- 
weather Rose. 

Sultan of Zanzibar. Maroon, edged with scarlet. A bright dark 

Rose ; requires brier. 
Suzanne Marie Rodocanachi. Glowing rose. Retains its colour well 

when cut. 

Thomas Mills. Bright scarlet carmine. Rather thin for the south, 

but fine in the northern counties. 
Ulrich Brunner. Cherry-red. A fine-petaled Rose. 
Victor Hugo. Dazzling crimson, shaded. A striking colour. 



APPENDIX 



287 



Victor Verdier. Clear cherry-rose. One of the best of its colour. 
Violette Bouyer. Tinted white. A fine light Rose ; early. 
Xavier Olibo. Dark velvety crimson. Best on * maidens. ' 



HYBRID TEAS. 

Augustine Guinoisseau. White, tinted blush. A blush sport from 
La France ; very free-flowering. 

Captain Cliristy. Delicate flesh, deeper shade in centre. Requires 
a fine season and brier stock ; flowers well in autumn. 
Climbing Captain Cliristy. Delicate flesh, deeper shade in centre. 
A climbing variety of the above. 

Caroline Testout. Light salmon-pink. Very distinct and free- 
flowering. 

Charlotte Gillemct. Ivory-white. Distinct and very pretty. 
Clara Watson. White, tinted rosy-peach. Very free-flowering and 
distinct. 

Danmark. Rosy-pink. More upright in habit than La France. 
Duchess of Albany. Dark pink. A deeper-coloured La France. 
Grace Darling. Cream, shaded pink. Very distinct, and free- 
flowering. 

Kaiserin Augusta Victoria. Cream, shaded lemon. A distinct, light 
Rose. 

Lady Mary Fitzwilliam. Rosy-flesh. Abundant bloomer and very 
early. 

La Fraicheur. Carmine-rose. Good flower, but bad doer. 
La France. Silvc.y-rose, with pale lilac shading. One of the most 
abundant bloomers ; highly fragrant. 
Climbing La France. Silvery-rose. Climbing variety of the old 
La France. 

Marquise Litta. Rosy-carmine. A good addition to this class. 

Mrs. W. J. Grant. Bright pink. A fine show Rose. 

Viscountess Folkestone. Creamy- white, shaded flesh. Most distinct ; 

a cool season variety ; very good in autumn ; fragrant and very 

free-flowering. 

White Lady. Creamy-white. A fine Rose in cool weather. 



TEAS AND NOISETTES. 

Most of the Teas and Noisettes have smooth wood, and are good in 

autumn. 

Alba Rosea. White, centre flushed with pink. Free-flowering. 
Amazone. Golden-yellow. Best in bud. 

Anna OUivier. Pale buff, flushed. One of the best and most distinct ; 
variable in colour. 

Bridesmaid. Clear bright pink. A very dark-coloured Catherine 
Mem let. 

Caroline Kuster. Lemon-yellow. Hardy and free-flowering. 



288 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



Catherine Mermet. Light rosy-flesh. At all stages a fine flower ; 
fragrant. 

Cleopatra. Creamy-flesh, shaded rose. Fine long petals. 

Climbing Devoniensis. Creamy-white, blush centre. Of English 

origin ; highly fragrant ; tender. 
Comtesse de NadaiUac. Peach, shaded apricot, base of petals coppery. 

Very distinct and beautiful. 
Comtesse de Panisse. Flesh, tinted coppery-rose. Requires a warm, 

dry season. 

Devoniensis. Creamy- white, blush centre. Of English origin ; highly 
fragrant. 

Climbing Devoniensis. Creamy-white, blush centre. A climbing 

variety of the above ; tender. 
Corinna. Flesh-colour, shaded rose. Very free-flowering. 
Elise Fugier. Pale lemon. A new and bold flower. 
Ernest Metz. Salmon, tinted rose. A very fine Tea. 
Ethel Brownlow. Rosy- flesh, shaded yellow at base. Lasts well when 

cut. 

^toile de Lyon. Deep lemon. Best in a hot season. 
Francisca Kriiger. Coppery-yellow, shaded peach. One of the 
hardiest Teas. 

Golden Gate. Creamy- white. Distinct and very good. 
Hon. Edith Gilford. White, centre flesh. Very free- flowering and 
hardy. 

Innocente Pirola. Creamy- white. Very constant and good. 

Jean Ducher. Salmon-yellow, shaded peach. Very free-flowering, 

hardy, and distinct in colour. 
Josephine Malton. White, centre flushed with pink. Free-flowering. 
Jules Finger. Bronzy-rose. Beautiful in autumn. 
La Boule d'Or. Golden-yellow, outer petals paler. Free-flowering, 

but difficult to open. 
Mme. Bravy. \ 
Alba Rosea. f White, centre flushed with pink. Free-flower- 

Josephine Malton. r" ing. 
Mme. de Sertot. ) 
Mme. Cusin. Violet-rose, yellow base. Free-flowering and distinct ; 
tender ; fragrant. 

Mme. de Sertot. White, centre flushed with pink. Free-flowering. 
Mme. de Watteville. Cream, bordered rose. Very distinct ; tender ; 
fragrant. 

Mme. Hippolyte Jamain. White, with coppery-yellow centre. Late 
flowering. 

Mme. Hoste. Pale lemon-yellow. Distinct and free-flowering. 
Mme. Lambard. Salmon, shaded rose. One of the hardiest of the 

Teas ; very variable in colour. 
Mme. Margottin. Citron-yellow, centre rosy-peach. Diflicult to 

open ; very fragrant. 
Maman Cochet Pink shaded, with salmon-yellow. A fine show Rose. 
Mar^chal Niel (N. ). Deep bright golden-yellow. The finest yellow 

Rose ; highly fragrant. 



APPENDIX 



289 



Marie Van Houtte. Lemon-yellow, petals edged with rose. One of 

the most distinct and best of the Teas. 
Medea. Lemon colour. Good in dry weather. 

Monsieur Furtado. Sulphur-yellow. Rather small ; requires generous 
treatment. 

Mrs. Pierpont Morgan. Bright cerise. A very high-coloured Mf/ie. 
Cusin. 

Niphetos. White. The whitest of all Tea Roses ; tender. 

Climbing Niphetos. White. A climbing variety of the above. 
Perle des Jardins. Bright straw-colour. Good in autumn ; uncertain 
in form. 

Climbing Perle des Jardins. Bright straw-colour. A climbing 
variety of the above. 

Princess of Wales. Rosy-yellow. Very variable in colour. 

Rubens. White, shaded with creamy-rose. One of the finest of the 
light-coloured Teas ; fragrant ; early. 

Souvenir d'Elise Vardon. Cream, with rosy tint. An exquisite Rose. 

Souvenir de Paul Neyron. Creamy-white, with rosy tint. Very free- 
flowering. 

Souvenir de S. A. Prince. J Pure white. A white sport from Soti- 

The Queen. ( veiiir iVim Ami. 

Souvenir de Ther^se Levet. Brownish-crimson. The darkest Tea. 
Souvenir d'un Ami. Pale rose. A useful, hardy, rose-coloured Tea. 
The Bride. White, tinged lemon. A sport from Caiherme Merjuet ; 
fragrant. 

The Queen. Pure white. A white sport from Souvenir (Pun Ami, 

BOURBON. 

Mme. Isaac Periere. Light carmine. Good in autumn. 

Mrs Paul. Blush-white, shaded peach. Best on * cutbacks ' and 

standards. Gold Medal N.R.S. 
Souvenir de la Malmaison. Blush- white, shaded flesh. Best in 

autumn ; very free-flowering. 
Climbing Souvenir de la Malmaison. Blush white, shaded flesh. 

A climbing variety of the above. 

GARDEN ROSES. 

SUMMER FLOWERING, except those marked * 

PROVENCE ROSES (Rosa Centifolia). 

Cabbage or Common. Rosy-pink. Very fragrant ; best on own roots ; 

requires close pruning. 
Crested or Cristata. Rosy-pink, paler edges. Very fragrant ; best 

on own roots ; requires close pruning. 
White or Unique. Paper-white. Very fragrant ; best on own roots ; 

requires close pruning. 

T 



290 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



MINIATURE PROVENCE or POMPON ROSES. 

Burgundy. Pale purplish-pink. Very small. 
De Meaux or Pompon. Rosy-lilac. A sport from Spong. 
Spong. Rosy-lilac. A somewhat larger flower than De Meaux, 
White Burgundy. White, slightly tinted. 

MOSS ROSES (Rosa Centifolia Muscosa). 

Baron de Wassenaer. Light crimson. Flowers in clusters. 
Blanche Moreau. Pure white. The best white moss. 
Celina. Crimson, shaded purple. Veiy free-flowering ; a good dark 
moss. 

Common or Old. Pale rose. Very fragrant. 

Comtesse de Murinais. White. Very free. 

Crested. Rosy-pink. Well mossed. 

Gloire des Mousseuses. Rosy-blush. One of the largest. 

Laneil. Rosy -crimson. 

Little Gem. Crimson. Small flowers ; very pretty. 
*Madame Edouard Ory. Rosy-carmine. A perpetual bloomer. 
Muscosa Japonica. Crimson. Leaves, calyx, and stem mossed. 
^Perpetual White, or Quatre Saisons Blanche. Pure white. Bloom- 
ing in clusters. 
*Sal^t. Pale pink. A perpetual bloomer. 

White Bath. White. Of English origin, and, like all the Mosses, 
only valuable in bud. 

MINIATURE MOSS ROSES. 

De Meaux. Rosy-pink. Rather delicate constitution. 
Little Gem. Crimson. Beautifully mossed. 

FRENCH AND DAMASK ROSES (Rosa Gallica and Rosa 

Damascena). 

Commandant Beaurepaire. Bright rose, striped purple, violet and 
white. 

(Eillet Parfait. Blush, striped white and pink. 

Red Damask. Red. Self-red form of Rosa Micndi. 

Rosa Mundi. Red, striped white. Rosa Gallica Versicolor. 

Village Maid. WTiite, with slaty-red coloured stripes. 

York and Lancaster. Pale rose or white, sometimes striped. Rosa 

Mundi or Village Maid is generally but incorrectly known as 

this Rose. 

ALBA ROSES (Rosa Alba). 

Celestial. Light blush. Bluish foliage. 
FeUcite. Pale blush. 

Maiden's Blush. Flesh, darker centre. In Kew collection in 1797. 



APPENDIX 



291 



HYBRID CHINA, HYBRID BOURBON, and HYBRID 
NOISETTE ROSES (Rosa Indica Hybrida). 

Blairii No. 2. Blush, with rose centre. A grand Climbing and Bush 
Rose. 

Charles Lawson. Vivid rose. A grand Bush Rose. 
Chenedole. Bright red. A good Pillar Rose. 
Coupe d'Hebe. Deep pink. A good Pillar Rose. 
Fulgens. Bright crimson. A good Pillar Rose. 
Madame Plantier. Pure white. Very free-flowering. 

AUSTRIAN BRIAR ROSES (Rosa Lutea). 

Austrian Copper. Coppery-red. ) Grown in England in 1 596 by 

Austrian Yellow. Yellow. \ John Gerard. 

Harrisonii. Golden-yellow. 

Persian Yellow. Deep golden-yellow. 

SCOTCH ROSES (Rosa Spinosissima). 

In Various Colours. White, various shades of red, and pale yellow. 
Very free and hardy. 

PERPETUAL SCOTCH ROSE. 

*Stanwell Perpetual. Pale blush. One of the earliest and latest to 
flower. 

SWEET BRIAR (Rosa Rubiginosa). 

Common. Pale pink. Foliage deliciously fragrant. 
Double Scarlet. Rosy-red. 
Double White. Flesh white. 

Janet's Pride. White, shaded and tipped crimson. A distinct break 
in this class. 



LORD PENZANCE'S HYBRID SWEET-BRIERS. 



Anne of Geierstein. Dark crimson.^ 
Amy Robsart. Deep rose. 
B rend a. Maiden's blush. 
Jeannie Deans. Scarlet-crimson. 
Lady Penzance. Coppery-yellow. 
Lord Penzance. Fawny-yellow. 
Meg Merrilees. Crimson. 



The foliage of all these varieties 
is very sweetly scented, the 
plants are hardy and free- 
flowering, and, after bloom- 
ing, they produce bright scar- 
let seed-pods which are very 
pretty in autumn. 



AYRSHIRE ROSES (Rosa Arvenis Hybrida). 

Bennett's Seedling or Thoresbyana. White. 
Dundee Rambler. White, pink edges. 
Queen. Purple. 

Ruga. Pale flesh. Sweet-scented ; glossy foliage. 

Splendens or Myrrh Scented. White-tinted flesh. A Climbing Rose, 



blooming in clusters. 



Like all in this Section. 



292 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



BOURSAULT ROSES (Rosa Alpina). 

Amadis or Crimson. Purplish -crimson. ) ^ j i- i_ 
Gracms. Bright pink. | Good dimbers. 

EVERGREEN ROSES (Rosa Sempervirens). 

Felicite Perpetu^. Creamy- white. A very free and good Climbing 

Rose. 
Flora. Bright rose. 

Leopoldine d'Orl^ans. White, tipped red. 
Princess Marie. Pink. 
Rampant. Pure white. 

BANKSIAN ROSES (Rosa Banksia). 

Alba or White. White. Violet-scented. Half-hardy and sub-ever- 
green. 

Lutea or Yellow. Yellow. Half-hardy and sub-evergreen. 



AUTUMN FLOWERING. 

HYBRID PERPETUAL or HYBRIDE REMONTANTE ROSES 
(Rosa Damascena Hybrida). 

Abel Grand. Silvery-pink. Early, free-flowering, and fragrant. 
Annie Laxton. Clear rose. One of the earliest to bloom. 
Boule de Neige. Pure white. A hybrid Noisette, flowering in clusters. 
3ruce Findlay. Shaded crimson. Bright and free -flowering. 
Centifolia Rosea. Bright light rose. Fragrant. 
Charles Lamb. Carmine-red. Good foliage. 
Chesliunt Scarlet. Bright crimson-scarlet. A beautiful vivid bud. 
Comtesse Cecile de Chabrillant. Pale pink. Perfect in shape, but 
somewhat small. 

Gloire de Margottin. Very bright red. A very bright red Pillar Rose. 
Gloire de Rosomene. Scarlet- crimson. A showy Pillar Rose. 
Glory of Chesliunt. Shaded crimson. A good Bush Rose. 
Henri Ledechaux. Clear cherry-red. Back of petals very bright ; 
good in autumn. 

John Hopper. Bright rose, reverse of petals pale lilac. Good early 
rose. 

Jules Margottin. Cherry-red. Free-flowering. 
Mme. Bellenden Kerr. White, flushed pink. Small, but beautiful in 
shape and colour. 

Mme. Clemence Joigneaux. Lilac-rose. Bold and distinct in growth 
and foliage. 

Marechal VaiUant. Bright crimson. Also known as Avocat Duvivier, 
Miss Hassard. Rosy-pink. Very hardy, early, and fragrant. 
Monsieur Boncenne. Very dark, shaded crimson. Best in hot 
seasons ; also known as Baron de Bo7isietten. 



APPENDIX 



293 



Mrs. Harry Turner. Crimson-scarlet. Very telling in colour. 
Paul Neyron. Bright rose. The largest Rose grown. 
Princess Louise Victoria. Salmon-pink, pale edges. A fine Pillar 
Rose. 

Princess Mary of Cambridge. Pale silvery-pink. A good early pink 
Rose. 

White Baroness. Pure white. Good in autumn. 
William Warden. Salmon-pink. A beautiful pink sport from Mme. 
C. Joigneaux. 

HYBRID TEAS (Rosa Indica Odorata Hybrida). 

Bardou Job. Glowing crimson. A hardy and very distinct Rose. 

Camoens. Glowing rose, yellow base. Particularly free in autumn. 

Cannes la Coquette. Pale fawn, shaded flesh. Very free in autumn. 

Cheshunt Hybrid. Cherry-carmine, shaded violet. An abundant 
bloomer and a good early Rose ; distinct. 

Gloire Lyonnaise. White, lemon base. The nearest approach to a 
yellow Hybrid Tea. 

Gustave Regis. Nankeen-yellow. Distinct, and beautiful in bud. 

Lady Henry Grosvenor. Blush-white, shaded peach. Very free- 
flowering. 

Mme. Pennet Ducher. Canary-yellow. Very pretty buttonhole. 
Marquess of Salisbury. Bright crimson. A semi-double bedding 
Rose. 

Reine Marie Henriette. Cherry-carmine. A distinct Climbing Rose. 
Souvenir de Wootton. Light crimson. Very free-flowering. 
Waltham Climber, No. 3. Crimson. Useful dark Climbing Variety. 



The following HYBRID PERPETUALS AND HYBRID 
TEAS, included and described in the Catalogue of 
Exhibition Roses, are also good Garden Roses. 

Alphonse Soupert, Annie Wood, Baroness Rothschild, Camille 
Bernardin, Captain Christy, Charles Lefebvre, Comte Raimbaud, 
Comtesse d'Oxford, Crown Prince, Dr. Andry, Duke of Connaught, 
Duke of Edinburgh, Dupuyjamain, Earl of Pembroke, Fisher Holmes, 
General Jacqueminot, Grace Darling, Heinrich Schultheis, Jeannie 
Dickson, La France, Mme. Gabriel Luizet, Mme. Victor Verdier, 
Magna Charta, Marie Finger, Marie Rady, Merveille de Lyon, Mrs. 
John Laing, Pride of Waltham, Prince Arthur, Prince Camille de 
Rohan (La Rosiere), Senateur Vaisse, Ulrich Brunner, Violette Bouyer, 
Viscountess Folkestone. 

BOURBON ROSES (Rosa Bourboniana). 

Accidale, White. A very useful climber. 
Armosa. Pink. 

Setina. Pink'. A climbing variety of Armosa. 



294 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



The following BOURBONS included and described in the 
Catalogue of Exhibition Roses are also good Garden 
Roses. 

Mme. Isaac Pereire, Mrs. Paul, and Souvenir de la Malmaison. 



CHINA ROSES (Rosa Indica). 

Cramoisie Sup^rieure. Velvety crimson. Very free, flowering in 
clusters. 

Ducher. Pure white. Very free, flowering in clusters. 
Duhe of York. Rosy-pink and white. A distinct and good addition 
to this class. 

Fabvier. Dazzling crimson with white stripe. The brightest colour 
in this class, and like the two preceding, a good bedding Rose. 

James Sprunt. Velvety-crimson. A climbing form of Cramoisie 
Superieure. 

Laurette Messimy. Rose, with yellow base. A new colour among 
the Chinas. 

Mrs. Bosanquet. Pale flesh. Very free, flowering in bunches. 
Old Blush or Common Monthly. Pale pink. Almost always in 
flower. 

Old Crimson. Deep velvety-crimson. Very free, flowering in clusters. 
Red Pet. Dark crimson. Fine for bedding. 
White Pet. Creamy-white. Fine for bedding. 



* TEA AND NOISETTE ROSES (Rosa Indica Odorata). 

Aim^e Vibert (N.). Pure white. Very free-flowering and almost 
evergreen. 

Alister Stella Gray. Pale yellow. A good free-flowering miniature 
Rose ; climber. 

Belle Lyonnaise. Deep lemon. A distinct variety of the Gloire de 
Dijon race. 

Beaute Inconstante. Coppery-red. Very pretty buttonhole variety. 
Celine Forestier (N. ). Pale yellow, deeper centre. A good useful 

Rose ; distinct in foliage and habit. 
Bouquet d'Or. Dark yellow. An improved Gloire de Dijon. 
Comtesse Riza du Pare. Bronzy-rose. Distinct in colour. 
Dr. Grill. Rose, with coppery shading. Distinct and free-flowering. 
Emilie Dupuy. Lemon yellow. Very hardy. 

Fortune^s Yellow. Carmine-yellow. A good climber in a warm 
situation. 

Gloire de Dijon. Buff", or salmon yellow. The parent of a distinct, 

hardy, and strong-growing race of Teas ; fragrant. 
Goubault. Rosy-buff. Remarkably fragrant. 
Hom^re. Rose edge, light base. A pretty Rose in bud. 
Isabella Sprunt. Lemon-yellow. Beautiful pointed bud. 



APPENDIX 



295 



Lamarque (N.). Pure white, shaded lemon. A fine climber, but only 
half-hardy. 

L'Id6al (N. ). Metallic red, tinted yellow. Distinct and charming in 

its variable colour ; hardy. 
Luciole. Bright rose, tinted coppery-yellow. Distinct in colour. 
Ma Capucine. Bronzy-yellow, shaded red. Distinct and beautiful in 

bud. 

Mme. Berard. Fawn yellow. A free-flowering and distinct variety of 

the Gloire de Dijon race. 
Mme. Charles. Bright apricot. A strong-growing Sdfrano. 
Mme. Ch^dane Guinoisseau. Clear bright yellow. A fine buttonhole 

Rose. 

Mme. Falcot. Deep apricot. Very free-flowering. 
Mme. P. Pemy. Saff"ron yellow. Beautiful bud. 
Mme. Willermoz. Creamy-white, centre tinted. One of the hardiest 
of the Teas. 

Marquise de Viuens. Bright carmine-rose. Very pretty bud. 
Ophirie (N. ). Nankeen and copper. A thoroughly autumnal climber. 
Papa Goutier. Pinkish-rose. Thin, but very handsome. 
Princesse de Sagan. Deep cherry-red, shaded maroon. Makes a good 
bedding rose. 

R^ve d'Or. Bufl'-yellow. A most vigorous and free-flowering climber ; 

nearly evergreen. 
Safrano. Apricot-yellow. Very free-flowering. 
Sunset. Apricot, shaded yellow. Good in autumn ; bronzy foliage. 
William Allen Richardson (N.). Deep orange-yellow, white edge. 

Most novel in colour and beautiful in bud. 



The following TEAS AND NOISETTES, included and 
described in the Catalogue of Exhibition Roses, 
are also good Garden Roses. 

Anna Ollivier, Caroline Kuster, Climbing Devoniensis, Climbing 
Niphetos, Climbing Perle des Jardins, Francisca Krliger, Mme. Hoste, 
Mme. Lambard, Marie Van Houtte, Perle des Jardins, Rubens, 
Souvenir de S. A. Prince, Souvenir de Therese Levet, Souvenir d'un 
Ami. 

HYBRID CLIMBING ROSES (Rosa Hybrida Scandens). 

Longworth Rambler. Light crimson. A useful evergreen Climbing 
Rose. 

Mme. Alfred Carri^re (H. N.). White, yellowish base. Large, deli- 

ciously fragrant, and very perpetual. 
Mme. d'Arblay. Flesh, changing to white. Blooming in clusters. 
The Garland. Blush, changing to white. Especially free-flowering. 
Reine Olga de Wurtenberg (H. N.). Bright light crimson. A fine 

climber, w^ith magnificent foliage. 



296 



A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



POLYANTHA ROSES (Rosa Multiflora). 



Cecile Brunner. Blush, shaded pale pink. 
Clothilde Soupert. White, shaded pink. 
Gloire des Polyantha. Deep rose, white base. 
Mme. Anna Maria de Montravel. White. 
Ma Paquerette. White. 
Mignonette. Rosy-pink. 
Perle d'Or. Nankeen-yellow. 



^Free-flowering minia- 
ture Roses. 



CLIMBING POLYANTHA. 

Claire Jacquier. Nankeen -yellow. Small flowers ; very pretty ; a 

handsome climber. 
Turner's Crimson Rambler. Bright crimson. A grand hardy 

climber for any situation. 

JAPANESE ROSES (Rosa Ferox or Rugosa). 
Alba. White. A fine single Rose. 

Mme. Georges Bruant. White. Very free-flowering; a probable 
hybrid. 

Rubra. Deep rose, shaded violet. A red variety of A /da. 

Hebe's Lip (Jlyd. Sweet-Brier). White with Picotee edge of purple, 

A most distinct and beautiful summer Rose. 
Paul's Carmine Pillar. Bright rosy-carmine. A good pillar Rose. 
Paul's Single White. White. A very free-flowering autumnal hybrid 

of Noisette. 

Rosa Alpina. Bright rose. Leaves changing colour in autumn. 
'Rosa Brunonis Moscbata. Pure white. Flowers in large trusses ; 

fine golden centre. 
Rosa Indica {Loive^s variety). Soft red. Ever blooming. 
Rosa Lucida. Bright red. Beautiful reddish foliage. 
Rosa Bracteata. White. Requires a south wall. 
Rosa Macrantba. Flesh. A form of Rosa Gallica ; large flowers 

with golden stamens. 
Rosa Moscbata Nivea. White, tinted pink. Vigorous climber. 
Rosa Multiflora. Pure white. Known as Polyantha Simplex. 
Rosa Multiflora Grandiflora. Pure white. Known as Polyantha 

Grandijiora. 
Rosa Pomifera. Blush. Large scarlet tips. 

Rosa Rubrifolia. Soft rose. Stems and foliage of a beautiful red 
shade. 

Rosa Setigera {Prairie Rose), Pink. The * Bramble-leaved Rose. ' 

HYBRIDS OF SPECIES. 

Marie Leonida. White. Glossy, waxy foliage ; requires a warm 
position. 

Rosa Lucida Plena. Rose. A double variety of Rosa Lucida. 



INDEX 



Aphis, the, 276. 

Arrangement of Rose-garden, 103. 
Artisans, Roses of, 12. 
Austrian Brier, the, 176. 
Ayrshire Roses, 137. 

Banksian Roses, 139. 
Bones as manure, 84. 
Bourbon Roses, 182. 
Boursault Roses, 142. 
Boxes for exhibition, 226. 
Brier, the, as a stock, 216. 
Briers, management of, 217. 
Budding Roses, 220. 

Caps for Roses, 230. 
China Roses, 178. 
Classification of Roses, 157, 174. 
Clay soil, management of, 73. 
Climbing Roses, 125. 
Colours, arrangement of, 239. 
Cost of Roses, 51, 214. 

Damask Roses, 179. 

Exhibitor, the Irascible, 251. 

the Covetous, 255. 

the Despondent, 258. 

Failure, causes of, 6, 53 et seq. 

Garden Roses, 157. 
Gardens, past and present, 107. 



Greece, Roses of, 37. 
Guano, 86. 

Hedges of the Rose, 57. 
Horticultural Clubs, 195. 
Hybrid Perpetual Roses, 181. 
Hybridizing, 188. 

Judging Roses, 260. 

Larva of Saw-fly, 280. 
Light soil, management of, 76. 

Manetti Rose, the, as a stock, 

216. 
Manures, 82. 

when to apply, 92. 

Marechal Niel, culture of, 132. 
Memoranda for the months, 268. 
Mildew, 279. 

Moss for Show -Roses, 228. 
Moss-Roses, 170. 

National Rose-Show, 193. 

revival of, 129. 

New Roses, 283 et seq, 
Nightsoil, 86. 
Noisette Roses, 184. 

Old Monthly Rose, 177. 

Pillar or Pyramidal Roses, 
144. 

Planting Briers, 219, 270. 



298 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



Planting Roses, 214, 268. 
Preparation for Rose-Show, 233. 
Provence Roses, 161. 
Pruning, 268, 273. 

Roman Roses, 38. 
Rosarians, the old, 185. 
Rose-grub, the, 274. 
Roses, best form of training, 118. 

for exhibition, 207, 212, 282. 

for walls, 283. 

for pots, 283. 

Rose- Shows, history of, 193. 

Seedling Briers, 218. 
Show-Rose, definition of, 210. 
Show-Roses, when to cut, 234. 
Site for Rose-garden, 53. 



Soils, 65. 
Soot, 85, 279. 
Stocks for Roses, 219. 
Supremacy of the Rose, 47. 
Sweet-Brier, the, 175. 

Tall Standards, 154. 
Tea Roses, 222. 

pruning, 273. 

Town gardens, Roses for, 63. 
Tubes for exhibition, 229. 

Ubiquity of the Rose, 42 

Variegated Roses, 174. 

Walks, 116. 

Weeping Rose-trees, 1 55. 




Printed by T, and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty 
at the Edinburgh University Press 



October, 1896. 



MR. EDWARD ARNOLD'S 



London: 37 BEDFORD STREET. 
New York : 70 FIFTH AVENUE. 



THE ADVENTURES OF MY LIFE. 

By HENRI ROCHEFORT. 

The authorised English edition, revised and specially arranged by M. 
RoCHEFORT, and translated under his personal supervision by 
E. W. Smith, editor of the Daily Messe7iger in Paris. 

In two volumes, large crown 8vo., 25s. 

In this work M. Henri Rochefort tells the amaziag story of his adventurous 
life. Among the more important episodes are the author's personal narra- 
tive of the French Commune, his subsequent transportation to the penal 
settlement of New Caledonia, his marvellous escape, his numerous duels, his 
residence in England, and his deeply interesting journalistic ventures. 

The work is appearing in five volumes in French, but M. Rochefort has 
decided to prepare a special and, in many respects, original version in 
English for sale in this country ; he has reduced the bulk of the work to two 
handy volumes, by omitting much that is of purely local interest, and select- 
ing only such of his adventures as will appeal to English-speaking readers. 
Apart from the value of the matter, the brilliance of M. Rochefort's style is 
notorious, and his strong personality penetrates every page of the work. The 
translation is being undertaken in Paris by Mr. E. W. Smith, editor of the 
Daily Messenger^ in daily communication with the author. 



2 



Mr, Edward Arnold's List. 



THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 

The First Expedition from Somaliland to Lake 
Rudolf and Lamu. 

A Narrative of Scientific Exploration and Sporting Adventures. 

By A. DONALDSON SMITH, M.D., F.R.G.S., 
Hon. Member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. 

With nearly 30 full-page Plates and a large number of smaller Illustrations, 
drawn from the author's Photographs and Sketches by A. D. 
McCoRMicK, Charles Whymper, etc. 

Large 8vo., One Guinea. 

The body of the work is occupied by the narrative of the expedition, and 
its valuable scientific results are given in a series of Appendices to be 
contributed by such eminent specialists as Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, Dr. Giinther, 
Dr. Gregory, Mr. Boulenger, Mr. Pocock, Dr. Holland, and others. 

Dr. Donaldson Smith arrived at Berbera, on the coast of Somaliland, 
about Midsummer, 1894; During a previous expedition undertaken for 
sporting purposes in Somaliland, he had conceived the plan of penetrating 
into the unknown interior of the Dark Continent and forcing his way to 
Lake Rudolf The present volume tells how he was enabled to achieve his 
object .after just a year's march, beset by constant dangers and difficulties 
that would have proved fatal to a less hardy or persevering explorer. From 
Lake Rudolf Dr. Donaldson Smith made his way to the east coast at Lamu, 
by which time he had marched no less than four thousand miles. 

Dr. Smith found it necessary to take with him the considerable force of 
eighty armed men, for self-defence in case of attack by the savage tribes of 
the interior, and on more than one occasion the force was called into action 
in a most exciting manner. The party experienced all kinds of hardships 
and perils, but nothing was allowed to interfere with the scientific objects of 
the expedition, although sport, both for its own sake and for purposes of food 
supply, filled an important place in the plans. 

Valuable collections were made of plants, birds, insects, geological speci- 
mens, and ethnographical curiosities, by which the great museums of America 
and Europe have been sensibly enriched. Dr. Donaldson Smith discovered 
a town in which there were stone houses and beautiful shrines, in regions 
where only mud huts were supposed to exist. He came into prolonged 
contact with the warlike Abyssinians, and was even the recipient of an 
autograph letter from the Emperor Menelek. His journey took him through 
some of the loveliest scenery in the world. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



3 



IN AND BEYOND THE HIMALAYAS. 

A Record of Sport and Travel in the Abode of Snow. 

By S. J. STONE, 

Late Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Western Circle North-West Provinces of India. 
With i6 full-page Illustrations by Charles Whymper. Demy 8vo., i6s. 

The author of this work has spent many years in India, and gives the 
record of several expeditions made for purposes of sport and exploration 
combined. He travelled through a great deal of practically unknown 
country in the Himalayas and borders of Tibet, and gives much valuable 
information about the scenes and people met with in the course of his 
journeys. The sporting incidents are exciting and graphically described, 
including the successful chase of nearly all the varieties of big game to be 
found in the regions traversed. 

The book will be splendidly illustrated by Mr. Charles Whymper. 

FIFTY YEARS' REMINISCENCES OF INDIA. 

By LIEUT.-COLONEL W. POLLOK, 
Late Madras Staff Corps, 
Author of Sport in Bnrnia/i,' etc. 

With i6 full-page Illustrations by A. C. Corbould. Demy 8vo., i6s. 

Colonel PoUok's reminiscences go back as far as the old ' Company 
days, when he first went out to India as a cadet. All through his long 
career he has had a succession of exciting adventures by flood and field, and 
has witnessed an immense variety of interesting and amusing episodes. He 
is a good hand at telling a good story, and the book fairly bristles with 
anecdotes. Considerable space is allotted to sporting recollections, and the 
author has had such hair-breadth escapes and such excellent luck in his 
pursuit of big game that he presents a record difficult to surpass. 

THROUGH THE SUB-ARCTIC FOREST. 

A Record of a Canoe Journey for 4,000 miles, from Fort Wrangel 
to the Pelly Lakes, and down the Yukon to the Behring Sea. 

By WARBURTON PIKE, 

Author of ' The Barren Grounds of Canada.' 

With Illustrations by Charles Whymper, from Puotographs taken by the 
Author, and a Map. Demy 8vo., i6s. 



4 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



THROUGH THE SUB-ARCTIC "EOmST— Continued, 

Mr. Pike is well known as an explorer, and in the journey now described 
he traversed some completely unknown country round the Peily Lakes. For 
many months he supported himself entirely by hunting and fishing, being 
absolutely cut ofY from any chance of obtaining supplies. Such a journey 
could not fail to be productive of many exciting episodes, and though the 
author treats them lightly, the hardships he went through form a fine test of 
the true explorer's spirit. 



The Sportsman's Library. 

Edited by Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bart., M.P. 

This series will consist of a selection from the best works of past writers 
on sport, carefully chosen either on account of their literary merit, of the 
light thrown by them on the habits and resources of a bygone age, or of their 
permanent value as contributions to knowledge of the various subjects 
dealt with. 

The volumes will be issued at the rate of two or three a year. They will 
contain in every instance an introductory chapter by the Editor, and such 
notes as may be necessary to explain or correct the author's statements. 

Illustrations in the original works, when of sufficient merit or interest, will 
be reproduced in facsimile, supplemented with new ones by the modern 
artists best qualified to deal with the various subjects. Among the artists 
whose co-operation has already been secured are Messrs. G. E. Lodge, 
J, G. Millais, A. Thorburn, C. Whymper, G. H. Jalland, A. C. Corbould, 
P. Chdnevix Trench, etc. 

The size of the volumes will be a handsome 8vo., and special care will be 
bestowed upon every detail of paper, print, and binding. The following will 
be published this season : 

I 

THE LIFE OF A FOX. 

By THOMAS SMITH, 
Master of the Hambledon and Pytchley Hounds. 

With Illustrations by the Author and Six Coloured Plates by 

G. H. Jalland. 

Large 8vo., handsomely bound, 15s. 

Also a limited Large-paper Edition, two guineas net. 

This volume will contain both of Smith's published works— * The Life of a 
Fox' and 'The Diary of a Huntsman.' The author's reputation as a hunts- 
man, as well as his gift of literary expression and his skill as a spirited 
draughtsman, made these books exceedingly popular in their day, and they 
have now become very rare. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



5 



The Sportsman's Library—Continued. 

A SPORTING TOUR THROUGH THE NORTHERN 
PARTS OF ENGLAND, AND GREAT PART OF 
THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. 

By Colonel T. THORNTON, of Thornville Royal, in Yorkshire. 

With a selection from the original illustrations by Garrard, portraits of the 
Author, and new plates by G. E. Lodge. F. C. Bennett, and others. 

Large 8vo., handsomely bound, 15s. 

Also a limited Large-paper Edition, two guineas net. 

This work, published in 1804, and reviewed the next year by Sir Walter 
Scott in the Edinburgh Review^ has never been reprinted. It is extremely 
interesting, not only on account of the graphic descriptions of shooting, 
hawking, and angling, but because of the author's shrewd observations on 
the state of society and manners, and his sympathetic description of scenery. 



THE SPORTSMAN IN IRELAND. 

By COSMOPOLITE. 
With numerous illustrations and coloured plates by P. Chenevix Trench. 



NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION 

A LITTLE TOUR IN IRELAND. 

By ^OXONIAN ' 
(The Very Rev. S. Reynolds Hole). 

With nearly forty Illustrations by John Leech. 

Large crown 8vo., 6s. 

This famous book being now entirely out of print, a new edition, containing 
all the original plates, has been prepared, and will be issued at a popular 
price, in order that it may take its share in the good work of promoting a 
better acquaintance with the charms of the Emerald Isle. John Leech and 
his friend 'Oxonian' could not, it is true, foresee the birth of the Irish 
Tourist Association ; but the inimitable pencil of the artist and the genial 
pen of the Dean of Rochester have helped in no small degree to familiarize 
the English public with the numberless attractions of Ireland and its 
laughter-loving people. 



6 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



THE CHANCES OF DEATH; 

AND OTHER STUDIES IN EVOLUTION. 

By KARL PEARSON, F.R.S., 

Author of ' The Ethic of Free Thought^ etc. 

With Illustrations and Diagrams. Demy 8vo., i6s. 

This is the first substantial work published by Professor Pearson since his 
well-known ' Ethic of Free Thought ^ appeared some years ago. The volume 
contains several scientific essays dealing with Chance in various aspects, 
from the Chances of Death to so-called Games of Chance, and points out 
how far mathematical theory corresponds with actual results. Another 
series of papers discusses problems of deep interest in connection with 
Woman and Labour, while a third section deals with important problems of 
modern political progress. 

HABIT AND INSTINCT. 

A Study in Heredity. 

By C. LLOYD MORGAN, 

Ajithor of ' Animal Life and Intelligence,' ' The Springs of Condt^ct,' etc. 

Demy 8vo., i6s. 

In the winter of 1895-96 Professor Lloyd Morgan delivered the series of 
* Lowell Lectures ' which form the basis of this work. The subject is one 
which has been the author's special study for many years, and in the present 
volume he has given the mature result of his researches. 

Summary of Contents. 

I. Preliminary Definitions and Illustration?. — II. -IV. Observations on Young Birds. 
— V. Observations on Young Mammals. — VI. On the Relation of Consciousness to 
Instinct and to Habit, — VII. On the Relation of Intelligence to the Acquisition of 
Habits. — VIII. On Imitation. — IX. On the Emotions in their Relation to Instinct. — 
X. On some Habits and Instincts of the Pairing Season. — XI. On the Instincts of 
Nest-building, Incubation, and Migration. — XII. On the Relation of Organic to 
Mental Evolution. — XIII. Are Acquired Habits inherited? — XIV. On Modification 
and Variation. — XV. Habit and Instinct in Man. 

THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 

By EDWARD WASHBURN HOPKINS, Ph.D. (Leipzig), 
Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Bryn Mawr College, U.S.A. 

Over 600 page?, demy 8vo., 8s. 6d. net. 

This is the first volume of an important series entitled ' Handbooks on the 
History of Religions.' Among the other volumes now in course of prepara- 
tion are those dealing with the religions of (ii.) Babylonia and Persia, (iii.) 
the Ancient Teutons, (iv.) Persia, (vi.) Egypt, (vii.) Israel. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List, 7 

THE PLANT-LORE AND GARDEN-CRAFT OF 

SHAKESPEARE. 

By HENRY N. ELLACOMBE, M.A., Vicar of Bitton, 

Author of 'In a Gloucestershire Garden,' etc. 

Fully illustrated by Major E. Bengough Ricketts. 
Large crown 8vo., handsomely bound, 103. 6d. 

This is a new edition of a book originally issued for private circulation, 
which has now been long out of print. It was spoken of by the Spectator as 
'a work which is entitled from its worth to a place in every Shakespearian 
library,' and efforts have been made in the present edition to give the text 
an adequate adornment. 

The volume is a complete and standard work of reference on the plants 
mentioned by Shakespeare. Canon Ellacombe takes each plant separately, 
and gives interesting particulars of its life-history and its place in legend and 
poetry. The illustrations by Major Ricketts are very beautiful and charac- 
teristic of the work. The artist has made a special visit to Stratford-on-Avon 
to sketch the scenes of Shakespeare's Garden-Lore, and has also depicted 
many of the plants named, with great skill. 

A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 

By the Very Rev. S. REYNOLDS HOLE, Dean of Rochester, 

Azcthor of ' A Book about the Garden,' ' A Little Tour i?i IreLmd,' etc. 

Illustrated by H. G. Moon and G. Elgood. 

The Presentation Edition, with coloured plates, etc., handsomely bound, 
los. 6d. ; Popular Edition, with frontispiece, 3s. 6d. 

The call for a fifteenth edition of this popular work has enabled Dean 
Hole to thoroughly revise and largely to rewrite the book, bringing the infor- 
mation in it well up to date. Advantage has also been taken of the oppor- 
tunity to respond to the frequently-expressed wishes of many admirers of the 
book for a more handsome and illustrated edition ; it has, therefore, been 
reprinted, and beautifully Coloured Plates have been drawn by Mr. H. G. 
Moon, while Mr. G. Elgood contributes charming black-and-white pictures. 
There is also a facsimile of a sketch by John Leech given to Dean Hole, and 
never before published. 

The book will be issued in two forms : (i) with the coloured plates, etc., 
at half a guinea ; and (2) with frontispiece, at 3s. 6d. 



8 



Mr. Edward A mold's List. 



OLD ENGLISH GLASSES. 

An Account of Glass Drinking-Vessels in England from Early Times 
to the end of the Eighteenth Century. With Introductory Notices of 
Continental Glasses during the same period, Original Documents, etc. 

By ALBERT HARTSHORNE, 

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. 

Illustrated by upwards of 50 full-page Tinted Plates in the best style of 
Lithography, and several hundred outline Illustrations in the text. Super 
royal 4to., price Three Guineas net. 

The plates and outline illustrations are prepared for reproduction by Mr. 
W. S. Weatherly and Mr. R. Paul respectively, from full-size or scale 
drawings by the author of the actual drinking-vessels in nearly every 
instance. The text will be printed in the finest style, and the lithographic 
work executed by Messrs. W. Griggs and Son. The volume is now in the 
press, and will, it is hoped, be ready for delivery before the end of the year. 
The First Edition will be limited to One Thousand Copies at Three Guineas 
net. There will also be a Large-paper Edition of One Hundred Copies 
issued at Five Guineas net. 

Note.— A fidl prospectus^ giving a complete account of the principal contents of this 
elaborate and magnificent work, which treats of a subject never before comprehensivtly 
undertaken for England, can be had post free on application. 

A TREASURY OF MINOR BRITISH POETRY. 

Selected and arranged, with Notes, by J. CHURTON COLLINS. 

Crown 8vo., 7s. 6d. 

In compiling this volume Mr. Churton Collins has been influenced by a 
desire to form a collection of poetry containing many charming pieces hitherto 
ignored in similar works. It is believed that compilers of anthologies have 
confined themselves too much to a few standard authors, and that there are 
a number of less-known writers who have composed one or two poems quite 
as fine as anything by the great masters. The present selection will reveal a 
mine of hitherto unsuspected treasures to many lovers of English Votir\\ 

EARLY ENGLISH FURNITURE. 

An Account of the Famous English Cabinet-makers, 
With numerous fine Illustrations of their Work. 
By Mrs. Warren Clouston. 
I vol., crown 4to^ 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List, 



9 



THE CRUISE OF THE ^ANTARCTIC 

TO THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS, 

By H. J. BULL, 
A Member of the Expedition. 

With frontispiece by W. L. Wyllie, A.R.A.,and numerous full-page illustra- 
tions by W. G. Burn-Murdoch. 

Demy 8vo., 15s. 

' The book is one of adventure in another besides the commercial sense, and as a 
record of Antarctic exploration one of the most attractive in print.'— News. 

* In reading his narrative we feel none of the eiinui and worry of the voyage. The 
author's fun lightens up in a most welcome way a tale which has in it much that is 
intrinsically interesting. ' — Scotsman, 

PERSIA REVISITED. 

With Remarks on H.I.M. Mozuffer-ed-Din Shah, and the Present 

Situation in Persia (1896). 

By General Sir T. E. GORDON, K.C.LE., C.B., C.S I., 
Formerly Military Attache and Oriental Secretary to the British Legation 

at Teheran, 

Author of ' The Roof of the World; etc. 

Demy 8vo., with full-page illustrations, los. 6d. 

'A book replete with first-hand knowledge, and one that must for the present be 
regarded as indispensable to an adequate acquaintance with the condition and 
prospects of Persia.' — Aberdee^i Free Press, 

THE EARLY CHARTERED COMPANIES, 

A.D. I296-1858. 

By GEORGE CAWSTON, Barrister-at-Law, 

AND 

A. H. KEANE, F.R.G.S. 

Large crown Svc, with frontispiece, los. 6d. 

'Mr. Cawston claims to have lighted on an almost unexplored field of research, and 
it must be conceded that his volume furnishes a great deal of interesting information 
which without its aid must for the most part have been sought for in sources not 
accessible to ordinary readers. ' — Daily News, 



10 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS. 

By DOUGLAS W. FRESHFIELD, 
Lately President of the Alpine Club, and Honorary Secretary of the Royal; 

Geographical Society. 

With Contributions by H. W. Holder, J. G. Cockin, H. Woolley, M. De 
Dechy, and Prof. Bonney, D.Sc, F.R.S. 

Illustrated by 3 Panoramas, 74 Full-page Photogravures, about 140 Illustra- 
tions in the text, chiefly from Photographs by Vjttorio Sella, and 4 
Original Maps, including the first authentic map of the Caucasus specially 
prepared from unpublished sources by Mr. Freshfield. 

In two volumes, large 4to., 600 pages, Three Guineas net. 

' We can only say, in a word, that a more interesting, more vivid, more conscientious, 
more exhaustive, and in parts more thrilling, account of a region as yet comparatively un- 
known has never come before us. No record of exploration has ever been published in 
this country in so splendid a material form, and, beyond contradiction, no pictures of 
mountains to illustrate the exploits of climbers have approached the very numerous photo- 
graphs of Signor Sella.' — Daily Chronicle, 

' Mr. Freshfield's work on the Caucasus is not merely the most important mountaineering 
book of the year, but probably the most important that has been published since the time 
of Tyndall and Ball. Every part of Mr. Freshfield's book is solid, and will remain perma- 
nently valuable. It brings within two volumes the record of everything that has been done 
and the substance of everything that has been learnt during the first twenty-eight years of 
Caucasian exploration by expert climbers.' — Manchester Guardian, 

' Two superb volumes. No book of travel or exploration within our remembrance has 
disclosed such a wealth of illustration as the one now before us, in which are depicted 
every Caucasian range and mountain of any moment with perfect clearness and sharpness. 
There is not one blurred photograph or drawing in the whole collection. Nothing has 
been omitted that could impart completeness to this magnificent work.' — Daily Telegraph, 

' What singles these magnificent volumes out on a very brief inspection from all cliiiibing 
literature is that for once the illustrations are worthy of the text. If the publishers had 
done nothing beyond giving us these magnificent reproductions from the cameras which 
Signor Sella and others have carried upwards of 16,000 feet above the sea, they would still 
be entitled to our praise and gratitude. Mr. Freshfield has given us truly one of the most 
delightful and inspiring works upon the "everlasting hills" which any library can hold, 
and it is produced and illustrated with a sumptuousness which it is a pleasure to find so 
well hesiO'NQd.'— Birmingham Post. 

'The two volumes are "great," not only from the prosaic standpoint of measurement 
and avoirdupois, but pre-eminently so in the more meritorious sense of representing infinite 
labour in the amassing of materials at first hand, and high literary and artistic skill in 
blending letterpress and photography in a way calculated to extort the admiration even of 
the most stoical reader.' — Liverpool Post. 

' A princely example of British scholarship.' — Glasgow Herald. 

' Enough, perhaps, has been said in recommendation of these volumes, which are instruc- 
tive without being didactic, full of novel information without any suggestion of guide-book 
literature, which contain most graphic descriptions of the scenery, without ever descending 
to word-painting, and which contrive to impart freshness even to the well-worn theme of 
mountain and glacier expeditions. It would be difficult to praise too highly the map. 
Only a few in this country will be able to appreciate the geographical knowledge and the 
infinite labour that the construction of this map must have cost. For the first time the 
topography of this great mountain-chain from Elbruz to Kasbek is laid down in its entirety 
with accuracy, and the extent of the glacial system is clearly demonstrated on a scale of 
about 3^ miles to one inch.' — Mr. Clinton Dent, in The Daily News. 



Mr, Edward Arnold's List. 



II 



FO UR TH ED in ON, 

FIRE AND SWORD IN THE SUDAN. 

A Personal Narrative of Fighting and Serving the Dervishes, 

1879-1895. 

By SLATIN PASHA, Colonel in the Egyptian Army, formerly Governor 
and Commandant of the Troops in Darfur. 

Translated and Edited by Major F. R. Wingate, R.A., D.S.O., 

Author of ' Mahdiism and the Egyptian Soudan,' etc. 

Fully Illustrated by R. Talbot Kelly. 
Royal 8vo., One Guinea net. 

* Whether Slatin's work is more important and attractive as a powerful exhortation 
on a subject of the greatest political importance and of special national significance 
from the noble English blood spilt in the Sudan, or as a chapter of human experience 
wherein truth far surpassed fiction in hair-breadth escapes and deeds of daring beyond 
what seemed possible, it would be difficult to decide ; but the whole result is one that 
places this volume on a shelf of its own, not merely as the book of the day, but as the 
authority for all time on the great Mahommedan upheaval in the Sudan, which was 
accompanied by an amount of human slaughter and suffering that defies calculation.' 
— Times. 

' It would be hard to name a fictitious narrative of more thrilling interest than this 
true story of Colonel Slatin Pasha's captivity in the Sudan and escape from the terrors 
which have marked the rule of the atrocious Khalifa Abdullahi.'— 6"/<2;2^/^zrt/. 

* Here is a work on matters of contemporary fact, which for romance, colour, adven- 
ture, and complexity and intensity of human feeling, outdoes many a novel by the 
masters of the art of fiction.' — St. James's Gazette. 

* Absolutely unique. Were we to try to extract, or even notice, all the striking 
things in this book, we should fill our paper.' — Spectator. 

' Told with a vividness and vigour that will carry you away.' — Truth. 

' The story told in this work is one of enthralling interest. In the whole modern 
literature of travel and adventure we cannot call to mind a work so absorbing as this.' 
— Manchester Guardian. 

* An exceedingly fascinating and engaging book, which is not surpassed in interest 
by any other of the kind that has been published for many years. It is written with 
rare ability and force. The narrative throughout is vivid, graphic, and picturesque, 
abounding in dramatic incident and striking character.' — Leeds Mercury. 

* One of the most interesting books of the year, or, indeed, of the past decade.' — 
Daily Telegraph. 

' The story of the experiences of Slatin Pasha as a ruler, a soldier, and a captive in 
the Sudan is one of the most striking romances of modern times. The return of this 
distinguished officer, after a disappearance of eleven years and more, from what 
Father Ohrwalder with bitter recollections calls a " living grave," and the perilous 
incidents of his escape and flight, form in themselves an extraordinary tale. But the 
interest of the book is much increased by the importance which, in the minds of 
English people, attaches to the melancholy events in which he bore a part, and by the 
narrative in which this witness risen from the dead reopens the story of the great 
tragedy of Khartoum.' — Speaker, 



12 



Mr, Edward Arnold's List. 



WAGNER'S HEROINES. 

BRUNNHILDA— SENTA-ISOLDA. 

By CONSTANCE MAUD, 
Author of ' Wagner s Heroes.' 

Illustrated by J. W. Maud. Crown 8vo., 5s. 

SECOND EDITION. 

WAGNER'S HEROES. 

PARSIFAL-TANNHAUSER-LOHENGRIN-HANS SACHS. 

By CONSTANCE MAUD. 
Illustrated by Granville Fell. Crown 8vo., 5s. 

* Miss Maud has done for the Shakespeare of music what Charles Lamb once did 
for the real Shakespeare.' — Daily Telegraph. 

* Constance Maud has elected to convey into simple language the histories of 
Wagner's Heroes," and has succeeded admirably.' — Black and White, 

NEW AND POPULAR EDITION, 

SEVENTY YEARS OF IRISH LIFE. 

By the late W. R. LE FANU. Crown 8vo., 6s. 

* It will delight all readers — English and Scotch no less than Irish, Nationalists no 
less than Unionists, Roman Catholics no less than Orangemen.' — Times. 

FIFTY LUNCHES. 

By COLONEL KENNEY HERBERT, 
Author of ' Common- Sense Cookery,' etc. 
Crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 

FANCY DRESSES DESCRIBED. 

By ARDERN HOLT. 

An Alphabetical Dictionary of Fancy Costumes. 

With full accounts of the Dresses. About 60 Illustrations by Lillian 
Young. Many of them coloured. One vol., demy 8vo. 

A TEXT-BOOK OF NURSING FOR HOME AND 

HOSPITAL USE. 

By C. WEEKS SHAW. 

Revised and largely re-written by W. Radford, House Surgeon at the 
Poplar Hospital, under the supervision of Sir Dyce Duckworth, 
M.D., F.R.C.P. Fully illustrated, crown 8vo. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



13 



NEW FICTION. 

A RELUCTANT EVANGELIST, 

AND OTHER STORIES. 

By ALICE SPINNER, 

At/thor of ' Lucilla,' ' A Study in Colour,' etc. 

Crown 8vo., 6s. 

INTERLUDES. 

By MAUD OXENDEN. 
Crown 8vo., 6s. 

THE BAYONET THAT CAME HOME. 

By N. WYNNE WILLIAMS, 
Author of ' Tales of Modern Greece.' 

Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. 
New Work by the Author of ' Into the Highways and Hedges.' 

WORTH WHILE. 

By F. F. MONTRESOR, 

Author of ' Into the Highways and Hedges,' ' The One who looked on," etc. 

One vol., crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 

* Two most pathetic and beautiful stories make up this little volume. The writer is 
to be congratulated on the delicate beauty of her stories.' — Liverpool Mercury, 

* Both the stories in this volume are of very superior quality. The characters are 
distinctly original, and the workmanship is admirable.' — Glasgow Herald, 



Mr, Edward Arnold's List. 



RECENT WORKS OF FICTION. 
(See also p. 23.) 

A New Story by the Author of ' The Red Badge of Courage.' 

GEORGE'S MOTHER. 

By STEPHEN CRANE. 
Author of ^ The Red Badge of Courage,' etc. 
Cloth, 2s. 

* In his latest work Stephen Crane scores heavily. It is a swatch torn from the 
great web of city life, a picture in which every touch reveals the true literary workman. 
Its pathos grips the heart close ; its characters are to the life, and here and there are 
caught gleams of humour that complete the symmetry of the pages. The already 
enviable reputation of the author of " The Red 13adge of Courage " will be heightened 
by this small volume.' — Aberdeen Free Press. 



HADJIRA. 

A Turkish Love Story. 

By 'ADALET.' 

One vol., crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 

' Certainly one of the most interesting and valuable works of fiction issued from the 
press for a long time past. Even if we were to regard the book as an ordinary novel, 
we could commend it heartily ; but its great value lies in the fact that it reveals to us 
a hidden world, and does so with manifest fidelity. But the reader must learn for 
himself the lesson which this remarkable and fascinating book teaches.' — Speaker, 

* One of the best stories of the season.' — Daily Chronicle. 

By the Author of ' The Apotheosis of Mr. Tyrawley.' 

A MASK AND A MARTYR. 

By E. LIVINGSTON PRESCOTT, 
One vol., crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 

'A story which, once read, will never be forgotten.' — Manchester Guardian. 

* This is an undeniably clever book. A picture of self-sacrifice so complete and so 
enduring is a rare picture in fiction, and has rarely been more ably or more finely 
drawn. This singular and pathetic story is told all through with remarkable restraint, 
and shows a strength and skill of execution which place its author high among the 
novel-writers of the day.' — Westininster Gazette. 



THE BONDWOMAN. 

A Story of the Northmen in Lakeland. 
By W. G. COLLINGWOOD, 

Author of ' Thor stein of the Mere,' ' The Life and Work of John Ruskin,' etc. 

Cloth, i6mo., 3s. 6d. 

* As for the thrilling details of the plot, and the other sterling charms of the little 
work, we must refer our readers to its pages, especially those of them who may be 
ouring, or contemplating a tour, in Westmorland and Cumberland.' — Leeds Mercury. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



15 



NEW BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 

{See also p, 26.) 

HOW DICK AND MOLLY SAW ENGLAND. 

By M. H. CORNWALL LEGH, 

Author of ' Hoiv Dick and Molly went Round the World' 

With numerous full-page Illustrations. 
Crown 4to., 15s. 

TWO NEW BOOKS BY KIRK MUNROE, 

SNOW-SHOES AND SLEDGES. 

A Sequel to 'The Fur Seal's Tooth.' 
By KIRK MUNROE. 
Finely Illustrated, 5s. 

RICK DALE. 

By KIRK MUNROE. 
Finely Illustrated, 5s. 

TWO NEW VOLUMES OF THE CHILDREN'S HOUR 

SERIES. 

THE PALACE ON THE MOOR. 

By E. DAVENPORT ADAMS. 
With full- page Illustrations, 2s. 6d. 

TOBY'S PROMISE. 

By A. M. HOPKINSON, 
With full-page Illustrations, 2s. 6d. 

Other Volumes in the Children's Hour Series. 

MASTER MAGNUS. 

By Mrs. E. M. FIELD. 
With full-page Illustrations, 2s. 6d. 



MY DOG PLATO. 

By M. H. CORNWALL LEGH. 
With full-page Illustrations, 2s. 6d. 



i6 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List, 



TWO NE W VOL UMES OF THE CHLLD REN'S FA VO URITE 

SERLES. 

Each fully Illustrated, price 2s. ; gilt edges, 2s. 6d. 

MY BOOK OF HEROISM. 
MY BOOK OF INVENTIONS. ' 



NEW AND CHEAPER EDITIONS. 

GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Eton. Harrow. Winchester. 

Rugby. Westminster. Marlborough. 

Cheltenham. Haileybury. Clifton. 
Charterhouse. 

With nearly One Hundred fine Illustrations by the best artists. 

Large imperial i6mo., cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. 

* As to the suitability of the book for prize or present there can be no two opinions 
We cordially recommend it to the notice of headmasters.' — Educational Review. 

TALES FROM HANS ANDERSEN. 

With over Thirty original Illustrations by E. A. Lemann. 

A beautiful volume, 4to.5 3s. 6d. 

' Miss Lemann has entered into the spirit of these most delightful of fairy tales, and 
makes the book specially attractive by its dainty and descriptive illustrations.' — 
Saturday Review. 

* A very enchanting gift book for young people, Hans Andersen's delightful and 
ever-new stories being illustrated with rare grace and charm.' — Lady's Pictorial. 

THE SNOW QUEEN, 

And Other Tales from Hans Andersen. 

With over Thirty original Illustrations by E. A. Lemann. 
Uniform with the above volume, 3s. 6d. 

* The success which attended the publication, last year, of the first series of Hans 
Andersen's Fairy Tales, has led to an issue of a fresh series, illustrated by the same 
artist. So we have again a most exquisite book.' — Spectator. 

THE BATTLES OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 

Extracted from Carlyle's History of Frederick the Great, and Edited by 

CYRIL RANSOME, M.A., 
Professor of History at the Yorkshire College, Leeds. 
With numerous Illustrations by Adolph Menzel. 
Square 8vo., 3s. 6d. 

* Carlyle's battle-pieces are models of care and of picturesque writing, and it was a 
happy thought to disinter them from the bulk of the "History of Frederick." The 
illustrations are very spirited.' — Journal of Education. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



17 



TRAVEL, SPORT, AND EXPLORATION. 
Balfoup— TWELVE HUNDRED MILES IN A WAGGON. A Nar- 

rative of a Journey in Cape Colony, the Transvaal, and the Chartered Company's 
Territories. By Alice Blanche Balfour. With nearly forty original Illustrations 
from Sketches by the Author, and a Map. Second edition. Demy 8vo., cloth, i6s. 

'A charming record of a most interesting journey.' — Spectator. 

Beynon— WITH KELLY TO CHITRAL. By Lieutenant W. G. L. 

Beynon, D.S.O., 3rd Goorkha Rifles, Staff Officer to Colonel Kelly with the Relief 
Force. With Maps, Plans, and Illustrations. Second edition. Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. 

Bull— THE CRUISE OF THE ANTARCTIC. {See page g,) 
Colvile— THE LAND OF THE NILE SPRINGS. By Colonel Sir 

Henry Colvile, K.C.M.G., C.B., recently British Commissioner in Uganda. With 
Photogravure Frontispiece, 16 full-page Illustrations and 2 Maps. Demy 8vo., i6s. 

' One of the most faithful and entertaining books of adventure that has appeared since 
Burton's days.' — National Observer. 

Custance-RIDING RECOLLECTIONS AND TURF STORIES. By 

Henry Custance, three times winner of the Derby. One vol., crown 8vo., 
cloth, 2s. 6d. 

Freshfield— EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS. {See page 10.) 

Gordon— PERSIA REVISITED. (See page 9.) 

Hole— A LITTLE TOUR IN AMERICA. By the Very Rev. S. 

Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester, Author of 'The Memories of. Dean Hole,' 
'A Book about Roses,' etc. With numerous Illustrations. Demy 8vo., i6s. 

Hole— A LITTLE TOUR IN IRELAND. {Seepages) 
Maxwell— THE SPORTSMAN'S LIBRARY. {See page 4.) 
Pike— THROUGH THE SUB-ARCTIC FOREST. {See page 4.) 

Pollok — FIFTY YEARS' REMINISCENCES OF INDIA. {See 

page 2.) 

Portal— THE BRITISH MISSION TO UGANDA. By the late 

Sir Gerald Portal, K.C.M.G. Edited by Rennell Rodd, C.M.G. With an 
Introduction by the Right Honourable Lord Cromer, G. C.M.G. Illustrated from 
photos taken during the Expedition by Colonel Rhodes. Demy 8vo., 21s. 

Portal— MY MISSION TO ABYSSINIA. By the late Sir Gerald 

H. Portal, C. B. With Map and Illustrations. Demy 8vo., 155. 

Slatin— FIRE AND SWORD IN THE SUDAN. {Seepage ii.) 

Smith— THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. {See 
page 3.) 

Stone— IN AND BEYOND THE HIMALAYAS. {See page 2.) 



i8 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



AMERICAN SPORT AND TRAVEL. 

These hooks, selected from the Catalogue of Messrs. Rand McNally & Co., the well- 
known publishers of Chicago, have been placed in Mr. Edward Arnold's hands under 
the impression that many British Travellers and Sportsmen may find them useful before 
starting on expeditions in the United States. 

Aldpieh— ARCTIC ALASKA AND SIBERIA; or, Eight Months 

with the Arctic Whalemen. By Herbert L. Aldrich. Crown 8vo,, cloth, 4s. 6d. 

AMERICAN GAME FISHES. Their Habits, Habitat, and Pecu 

Harities ; How, When, and Where to Angle for them. By various Writers. Cloth, 
los. 6d. 

Higgins— NEW GUIDE TO THE PACIFIC COAST. Santa Fe 

Route. By C. A. Higgins. Crown 8vo., cloth, 4>. 6d. 

Lefflngwell— THE ART OF WING - SHOOTING. A Practical 

Treatise on the Use of the Shot-gun. By W. B. Leffingwel:.. With numerous; 
Illustrations. Crown 8vo., cloth, 45. 6d. 

Shields— CAMPING AND CAMP OUTFITS. By G. O. Shields 

('Coquina'). Containing also Chapters on Camp Medicinej Cookery, and How tc 
Load a Packhorse. Crown 8vo., cloth, 5s. 

Shields— THE AMERICAN BOOK OF THE DOG. By various' 

Writers. Edited by G. O. Shields (' Coquina'). Cloth, 15s. ' 

Thomas— SWEDEN AND THE SWEDES. By William Widgerv, 

THOMAS, Jun., United States Minister to Sweden and Norway. With numerous; 
Illustrations. Cloth, i6s. 



HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. 

Benson and Tatham— MEN OF MIGHT. Studies of Great Char- 
acters. By A. C. Benson, M.A., and H. F. W. Tatham, M.A., Assistant Masters 
at Eton College. Second Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 

Boyle— THE RECOLLECTIONS OF THE DEAN OF SALISBURY. 

By the Very Rev. G. D. Boyle, Dean of Salisbury. With Photogravure Portrait. 
I vol., demy 8vo. , cloth, i6s. 

Cawston and Keane— THE EARLY CHARTERED COMPANIES. 

{See page 9.) 

FowleP— ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. Recollections of Sport, 

Society, Politics, and Farming in the Good Old Times. By J. K. Fowler, of Ayles- 
bury. Second Edition, with numerous Illustrations, 8vo. , los. 6d. Also a large-papei 
edition, of 200 copies only, 21s. net. 

'A very entertaining volume of reminiscences, full of good stories.' — Truth. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



19 



lare— MARIA EDGEWORTH : her Life and Letters. Edited by 

, Augustus J. C. Hare, Author of ' The Story of Two Noble Lives,' etc. Two vols., 
crown 8vo., with Portraits, i6s. net. 

* Mr. Hare has written more than one good book in his time, but he has never produced anything 
learly so entertaining and valuable as his latest contribution to biography and literature.'— Saturday 
leview. 

Bole— THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. By the Very Rev. 

S. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester. With the original Illustrations from 
sketches by Leech and Thackeray. New Edition, twelfth thousand, one vol., 
crown 8vo., 6s. 

' *One of the most delightful collections of reminiscences that this generation has seen.'— Daily 
Chronicle. 

bole— MORE MEMORIES : Being Thoughts about England Spoken 

in America. By the Very Rev. S. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester. With 
I Frontispiece. Demy 8vo., i6s. 

I * Full alike of contagious fun and mature wisdom.' — Daily Chronicle. 

Hopkins— THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. {See page 6.) 

Kay— OMARAH'S HISTORY OF YAMAN. The Arabic Text, 

edited, with a translation, by Henry Cassels Kay, Member of the Royal Asiatic 
Society. Demy 8vo., cloth, 17s. 6d. net. 

Knight-Bpuce-MEMORIES OF MASHONALAND By the Right 

Rev. Bishop Knight Bruce, formerly Bishop of Mashonaland. 8vo., los. 6d. 

'To review this book fully is impossible, as there is not a single pa^e devoid of interest, and all 
those who take an interest in South African affairs should not fail to read it. The concluding chapter 
of the Matabele War is quite as good as the previous ones.' — Pall Mall Gazette. 

Lecky— THE POLITICAL VALUE OF HISTORY. By W. E. 

H. Lecky, D.C.L. , LL.D. An Address delivered at the Midland Institute, reprinted 
with additions. Crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 

Le Fanu— SEVENTY YEARS OF IRISH LIFE. {Seepage 12.) 
Macdonald— THE MEMOIRS OF THE LATE SIR JOHN A. 

MACDONALD, G.C.B., First Prime Minister of Canada. Edited by JOSEPH PoPE, 
his Private Secretary. With Portraits. Two vols., demy 8vo., 32s. 

Milner— ENGLAND IN EGYPT, By Sir Alfred Milner, K.C.B. 

Popular Edition, with Map, and full details of the British position and responsibihlies, 
7s. 6d. 

Milner— ARNOLD TOYNBEE. A Reminiscence. By Sir Alfred 

Milner, K.C.B., Author of 'England in Egypt.' Crown 8vo., bucl^ram, 2S. 6d. ; 
paper, is. 

Oman— A HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Charles Oman, Fellow 

of All Souls' College, and Lecturer in History at New College, Oxford ; Author of 
* Warwick the Kingmaker,' ' A History of Greece,' etc. Crown 8vo., cloth. 4s. 6d. 
net. 

'This is the nearest approach to the ideal School History of England which has yet been written.' 
— Guardian. 



20 



Mr, Edward Arnold's List. 



Pilking^ton-IN AN ETON PLAYING FIELD. The Adventures 

of some old Public School Boys in East London. By E. M. S. Pilkington. Fcap. 
8vo., handsomely bound, 2s. 6d. 

Pulitzer— THE ROMANCE OF PRINCE EUGENE. An Idyll under 

Napoleon the First. By Albert Pulitzer. With numerous Photogravure 
Illustrations. Two vols., demy 8vo. , 21s. 

Raleigh— ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. By Walter Raleigh, 

Professor of English Literature at Liverpool University College. Second edition, 
crown 8vo., cloth 2s. 6d. 

Ransome— THE BATTLES OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. {See 
page 16.) 

Rochefort— ADVENTURES OF MY LIFE. {Seepage i.) 
Santley— STUDENT AND SINGER. The Reminiscences of 

Charles Santley. New Edition, crown Svo., cloth, 6s. 

Sherard— ALPHONSE DAUDET: a Biography and Critical Study. 

By R. H. Sherard, Editor of ' The Memoirs of Baron Meneval,' etc. With Illustra- 
tions. Demy Svo., 15s. 

' An excellent piece of journalisnij the kind of personal journalism which is both entertaining 
and useful.' — Saturday Review. 

Tollemache-BENJAMIN JOWETT, Master of Balliol. A 

Personal Memoir. By the Hon. Lionel Tollemache, Author of ' Safe Studies,' etc. 
Third Edition, with portrait, crown Svo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 

' A very remarkable success.' — St. James's Gazette. 

Twining— RECOLLECTIONS OF LIFE AND WORK. Being 

the Autobiography of Louisa Twining. One vol. , Svo. , cloth, 15s. 



LITERATURE AND BELLES LETTRES. 
Bell— DIANA'S LOOKING GLASS, and other Poems. By the 

Rev. Canon Bell, D.D., Rector of Cheltenham, and Hon. Canon of Carlisle. 
Crown Svo., cloth, 5s. net. 

Bell— POEMS OLD AND NEW. By the Rev. Canon Bell, D.D. 

Cloth, 7s. 6d. 

Bell— THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME, and other Sermons. 

By the Rev. Canon Bell, D.D. Cloth, 55. 

Bell— KLEINES HAUSTHEATER. Fifteen Little Plays in German 

for Children. By Mrs. Hugh Bell. Crown Svo., cloth, 2S. 

Most of these little plays have been adapted from the author's ' Petit Theatre,' the 
remainder from a Httle book of EngHsh plays by the same writer entitled ' Nursery 
Comedies.' 

Butler-SELECT ESSAYS OF SAINTE BEUVE. Chiefly bearing 

on Enghsh Literature. Translated by A. J. Butler, Translator of 'The Memoirs of 
Baron Marbot.' One vol., Svo., cloth, 5s. net. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



21 



CoUin^wood— THORSTEIN OF THE MERE : a Saga of the North- 
men in Lakeland. By W. G. Collingwood, Author of ' Life of John Ruskin,' etc. 
With Illustrations. Price los. 6d. 

Collingwood— THE BONDWOMAN. (See page 14 ) 

Collins— A TREASURY OF MINOR BRITISH POETRY. {See p. 8 ) 

Cook— THE DEFENSE OF POESY, otherwise known as An 

APOLOGY FOR POETRY. By Sir Philip Sidney. Edited by A. S. Cook, Pro- 
fessor of English Literature in Yale University. Crown 8vo. , cloth, 4s. 6d. 

Cook— A DEFENCE OF POETRY. By Percy Bysshe Shelley. 

Edited, with notes and introduction, by Professor A. S. Cook. Crown 8vo. , cloth, 
2S. 6d. 

Davidson— A HANDBOOK TO DANTE. By Giovanni A. Scar- 

TAZZINI. Translated from the Italian, with notes and additions, by Thomas Davidson, 
M.A. Crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 

EUaeombe— THE PLANT-LORE AND GARDEN-CRAFT OF 

SHAKESPEARE. [See page 7.) 

Fleming— THE ART OF READING AND SPEAKING. By the 

Rev. Canon Fleming, Vicar of St. Michael's, Chester Square. Second edition. 
Cloth, 3s. 6d. 

Garaett— SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH PROSE FROM ELIZABETH 

TO VICTORIA. Chosen and arranged by James M. Garnett, M.A., LL.D. 700 
pages, large crown 8vo., cloth, 7s. 6d. 

Goschen — THE CULTIVATION AND USE OF IMAGINATION. 

By the Right Hon. George Joachim Goschen. Crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 
GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS. {Seepage i6.) 

Gummere— OLD ENGLISH BALLADS. Selected and Edited by 

Francis B. Gummere, Professor of English in Haverford College, U.S.A. Crown 
8vo., cloth, 5s. 6d. 

Harrison— STUDIES IN EARLY VICTORIAN LITERATURE. By 

Frederic Harrison, M.A., Author of 'The Choice of Books,' etc. Demy 8vo., 
cloth, los. 6d. 

' Let us say at once that this is a charming book. One lays it down not only delighted by its literary 
excellence, but with something like affection for the person who wrote it.' — Spectator. 

Hartshorne— OLD ENGLISH GLASSES. {See page 8.) 

Hole — ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN FROM PULPIT AND 

PLATFORM. By the Very Rev. S. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester. One vol., 
crown 8vo. , 6s. 

* A book of great interest and great excellence.' — Scotsman. 

Hudson-THE LIFE, ART, AND CHARACTERS OF SHAKE- 

SPEARE. By Henry N. Hudson, LL.D., Editor of The Harvard Shakespeare, 
etc. 969 pages, in two vols., large crown 8vo., cloth, 21s. 



22 Mr. Edward Arnold's List 



^"SSmpl^J^ wor\^<7\^^ W^^^ of SHAKESPEARE'j 

T T n A r)^?-^-^^- ^ Library Edition. By Henry N Hrn^^^ 

Hunt-Leigrh Hunt's ' WHAT IS POETRY ?' An Answer to th! 
Langr-LAMB'S ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES. With an Intro 

edglr.s ' ^'■'^'^^ ^-^"^^^ ^^'^ 'he Prize Edition gU 

Maud-WAGNER'S HEROES and WAGNER'S HEROINES (Se, 
page 12.) ' \ ' 

Moppison-LIFE'S PRESCRIPTION, In Seven Dosp^: Rv n 

MacLaren Morrison-. Crown 8vo., parchment is 6d ^' ^ ^ 

Peapson-THE CHANCES OF DEATH. {Sc-epage 6.) 

Rodd— FEDA, and other Poems, chiefly Lvrieal Rv RrNNPn 

ROOD, CM. G. Wuh etched Frontispiec;. CrSv^o^es. ^^NE^J- 

Rodd-THE UNKNOWN MADONNA, and othep Poems Rv 

REXNKLL Rou.. C.M.G. Wuh Frontispiece b'y R.CHMOKa I'rown^Svo'^dotH, 53^ 

Rodd-THE VIOLET CROWN, AND SONGS OF ENGLAND Rv 

R.N.NHL. Ko.n.CM.G. Wuh Photogravure Frontispiece"^ Crown st^d^.h. 

Rodd-THE CUSTOMS AND LORE OF MODERN GRFPPP n 

Koon.C.M.G. Wuh 7 fuli-page IWustrS. J^^^^ 

Schelling:— A BOOK OF ELIZABETHAN iVRirQ c i . ^ . 
Siehel— THE STORY OF TWO SALON^: \ro^o ^ t. 

andtheSuards. By Edith S.^EL Autl^r J^'W ..^^'^^^'"^ de Beaumont 
trations. Large croU Svo clmh iof ad ° ^""^'ngton Junior.' W,th llius- 
'A very good book indeed.'-Satunfaj> Review. 

Thayep-THE BEST ELIZABETHAN PLAYS FHit.ri -.k 

Introduction, by Wt.UAM R. Thavkk. "f.^pagfshtle cVown'^s'o!!.:'',' 6^ 

^^&???o!JSion^™-,V^i"-^^^^ 

.53. net. A few copies of the fir"^ ^^S^^^^^^ ,,^-y ,to. cioth. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



23 



FICTION. 

SIX SHILLING NOVELS. 

A RELUCTANT EVANGELIST. By Alice Spinner. (See page 13.) 

INTERLUDES. By Maud Oxenden. {See page 13.) 

A MASK AND A MARTYR. By E. Livingston Prescott. (^See 
page 14.) 

HADJIRA. By Adulet. {See page 14.) 

TOMMY ATKINS. A Tale of the Ranks. By Robert Blatchford, 

Author of 'A Son of the Forge,' ' Merrie England,' etc. Second Edition. Crown 
8vo. , cloth, 6s. 

ORMISDAL. A Novel. By the Earl of Dunmore, F.R.G.S., Author 

of 'The Pamirs.' One vol., crown 8vo. , cloth, 6s. 

THE TUTOR'S SECRET. (Le Secret du Pr^cepteur.) Translated 

from the French of Victor Cherbuliez. One vol., crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 

THREE SHILLING AND SIXPENNY NOVELS. 

THE BAYONET THAT CAME HOME. By N. Wynne Williams. 
{See page 13.) 

ON THE THRESHOLD. By Isabella O. Ford, Author of ^Miss 

Blake of Monkshalton.' One vol., crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. 

THE MYSTERY OF THE RUE SOLY. Translated by Lady 

Knutsford from the French of H. DE Balzac. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 

DAVE'S SWEETHEART. By Mary Gaunt. One vol., 8vo., cloth, 

3s. 6d. 

MISTHER O'RYAN. An Incident in the History of a Nation. 

By Edward McNulty. Small 8vo., elegantly bound, 3s. 6d. 

* An extremely well-written satire of the possibilities of blarney and brag.' — Pall Mall Gazette. 

STEPHEN REMARK. The Story of a Venture in Ethics. By the 

Hon. and Rev. James Adderley, formerly Head of the Oxford House and Christ 
Church Mission, Bethnal Green. Twenty-Second Thousand. Small 8vo., elegantly 
bound, 3s. 6d. Also in paper cover, is. 

' Let us express our thankfulness at encountering for once in a way an author who can amuse us.' — 
Saturday Review, 

HALF-A-CROWN NOVELS. 
WORTH WHILE. By F. F. Montr^sor. {See page 14.) 
LOVE-LETTERS OF A WORLDLY WOMAN. By Mrs. W. K. 

Clifford, Author of 'Aunt Anne,' 'Mrs. Keith's Crime,' etc. One vol., crown 
8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 

' One of the cleverest books that ever a woman wrote.' — Queen. 



V 



24 



Mr, Edward Arnold's List. 



i^/C77(9iV— Continued. 
THAT FIDDLER FELLOW : A Tale of St. Andrews. By Horace 

G. Hutchinson, Author of 'My Wife's Politics,' 'Golf,' 'Creatures of Circum-i 
stance,' etc. Crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 

TWO SHILLINGS. 
GEORGE'S MOTHER. By Stephen Crane. {See page ia,.) 

COUNTRY HOUSE— PASTIMES. 
Ellacombe— IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN. By the Rev. 

H. N. Ellacombe, Vicar of Bitten, and Honorary Canon of Bristol. Author ot" 
' Plant Lore and Garden Craft of Shakespeare.' With new illustrations by Major 

E. B. Rtcketts. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. , cloth, 6s. 

Hole-A BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN AND THE GARDENER. ' 

By the Very Rev. S. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester. Second edition. Crown 
8vo., 6s. 

Hole— A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. (See page 7.) 

Brown— PLEASURABLE POULTRY-KEEPING. By E. Brown, 

F. L.S. Fully illustrated. One vol., crown Bvo., cloth, 2S. 6d. 

' Mr. Brown has established for himself a unique position in regard to this subject, and what he has ' 
to say is not only sound counsel, but is presented in a very readable form.' — Nottingham Daily ; 
Guardian. 

Brown— POULTRY-KEEPING AS AN INDUSTRY FOR FARMERS 

AND COTTAGERS. By Edward Brown. Fully illustrated. Second edition. Demy 
4to., cloth, 6s. 

Brown— INDUSTRIAL POULTRY-KEEPING. By Edward Brown. 

Illustrated. Paper boards, is. A small handbook chiefly intended for cottagers and 
allotment-holders. 

Brown- POULTRY FATTENING. By E. Brown, F.L.S. Fully 

illustrated. New Edition. Crown 8vo., is. 6d. 

White— PLEASURABLE BEE-KEEPING. By C. N. White, Lecturer 

to the County Councils of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, etc. Fully illustrated. 
One vol., crown 8vo., cloth, 2S. 6d. 

Gossip— THE CHESS POCKET MANUAL. By G. H. D, Gossip. 

A Pocket Guide, with numerous Specimen Games and Illustrations. Small 8vo. , 2S. 6d. 

Cunningham— THE DRAUGHTS POCKET MANUAL. By J. G. 

Cunningham. An Introduction to the Game in all its branches. Small Bvo., with 
numerous diagrams, 2s. 6d. 

Kenney-Herbert- COMMON -SENSE COOKERY: based on 

Modern English and Continental Principles, Worked out in Detail. By Colonel 
A. Kenney-Herbert (' Wyvern'). Large crown Bvo., over 500 pp., 7s. 6d. 

Kenney - Herbept — FIFTY BREAKFASTS: containing a great 

variety of New and Simple Recipes for Breakfast Dishes. By Colonel Kenney- 
Herbert (' Wyvern '). Small Bvo., 2s. 6d. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



25 



[enney - Herbert — FIFTY DINNERS. By Colonel Kenney- 

Herbert. Small 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 

[enney- Herbert — FIFTY LUNCHES. By Colonel Kenney- 

Herbert. Small 8vo., cloth, 2S. 6d. {Seepage j2.) 

Ihopland-CYCLING FOR HEALTH AND PLEASURE. By L. 

H Porter, Author of 'Wheels and Wheeling,' etc. Revised and edited by t. W. 
Shorland, Amateur Champion 1892-93-94- With numerous Illustrations, small 
Bvo., 2S. 6d. 

SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 
3ryan-THE MARK IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. A Review 

of the Discussion on Early Land Tenure. By Enoch A Bryan, A.M., President 
of Vincennes University, Indiana. Crown 8vo., cloth, 4s. 6d. 

Burffess-POLITICAL SCIENCE AND COMPARATIVE Consti- 
tutional LAW. By John W. Burgess, Ph.D., LL.D., Dean of the University 
JaVuUy of PoUtical Science in Columbia College, U.S.A. In two volumes. Demy 
8vo., cloth, 255. 

Fawcett-THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. Being an Attempt 

to determine the First Principles of Metaphysics considered as an Inquin^into the 
Conditions and Import of Consciousness. By EDWARD Douglas Fawcett. One 
vol. , demy Svo. , 14s. 

iaopkins— THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. {Seepage 6.) 
Ladd-LOTZE'S PHILOSOPHICAL OUTLINES. Dictated Portions 

of the Latest Lectures (at Gottingen and Berlin) of H^^™^"" ^oue Transla^^^^^ 
and edited by George T. Ladd, Professor of Philosophy in Y^l^ 
i8o pages in each volume. Crown 8vo. , cloth, 4S. each. Vol. I- ^etaphysics Vol. 
II. Philosophy of Religion. Vol. III. Practical Philosophy. Vol. iV. Psychology. 
Vol. V. Esthetics. Vol. VI. Logic. 

THE JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY. Edited by C. O. Whitman 

ProfeVsor of Biology in Clark University, U.S.A. Three numbers m a volume of 
loo to mo large 4W. pages, with numerous plates. Single numbers, 17s. 6d. , sub- 
scr°pt°on to the^olume of^h^ee numbers, 4SS. Volumes I. to X. can now be obtained, 
and the first number of Volume XI. is ready. 

Morffan-ANIMAL LIFE AND INTELLIGENCE. By Professor 

™°C^tLOVD MORGA^^ F.G.S., Principal of University C°Uege Bristol With 40 
Illustrations and a Photo-etched Frontispiece. Second Edition. Demy 8vo.. 
cloth, i6s. 

Morg-an-HABIT AND INSTINCT. (See page 6.) 

Morffan-THE SPRINGS OF CONDUCT. By Professor C. Lloyd 

IVlORGAN, F.G.S. Cheaper Edition. Large crown Svo. , 3s. 6d. 

Morffan-PSYCHOLOGY FOR TEACHERS. By Professor C. Lloyd 

"'°San, F.G.S. With a Preface by L G. F.xcH, M. A., LL.D 'ts%°d"net 
Chief Inspectors of Training Colleges. One vol., crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. net. 

Young-A GENERAL ASTRONOMY. By Charles Young, 

Professor of Astronomy in the College of New Jersey, Associate of .he Roy^ A °- 
nomical Society, Author of The Sun, etc. In one vol., 55° Pf es^^ with 250 I^^^^^^^^ 
tions, and supplemented with the necessary tables. Royal 8vo., halt morocco, 
I2S. 6d. 



26 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



1 



ILLUSTRATED GIFT BOOKS, ETC. 

For further particulars of books under this heading see special 
Catalogue of Gift Books for Presents and Prizes. 

WINCHESTER COLLEGE. Illustrated by Herbert Marshall. 

With Contributions in Prose and Verse by Old Wykehamists. Demy 410., cloth, 
25s. net. A few copies of the first edition, limited to 1,000 copies, are still to be had.' 

GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Eton — Harrow — Winchester 
Rugby — Westminster — Marlborough — Cheltenham — Haileybury - 
Clifton-Charterhouse. With nearly a Hundred Illustrations by the best artists 
Cheiper edition. One vol., large imperial i6mo., handsomely bound. 33. 6d. *: 

A LITTLE TOUR IN IRELAND. By An Oxonian (the Very Rev. 

S. R. Hole, Dean of Rochester). With nearly forty Illustrations by John Leech 
including the famous steel Frontispiece of the ' Claddagh.' One vol., lar^e crown 
8vo., 6s. 

WILD FLOWERS IN ART AND NATURE. By J. C. L. Sparkes, 

Principal of the National Art Training School, South Kensington, and F. W. BuR- 
BiDGE, Curator of the University Botanical Gardens, Dublin. With 21 Fuil.pa<^e 
Coloured Pletes by H. G. Moon. Royal 4to., handsomely bound, gilt edges, 21s.'' 



BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. 

SNOW-SHOES AND SLEDGES. By Kirk Munroe. Fully illus- 
trated. Crown 8vo., cloth, 5s. 

RICK DALE. By Kirk Munroe. Fully illustrated. Crown 8vo., 

cloth, 5s. 

ERIC THE ARCHER. By Maurice H. Hervey. With numerous 

full-page Illustrations. Handsomely bound, crown 8vo. , 5s. 

THE FUR SEAL'S TOOTH. By Kirk Munroe. Fully illustrated. 

Crown 8vo., cloth, 5s. 

HOW DICK AND MOLLY WENT ROUND THE WORLD. By 

M. H. Cornwall Legh. With numerous Illustrations. Fcap. 410., cloth, 5s. 

HOW DICK AND MOLLY SAW ENGLAND. By M. H. Cornwall 

Legh. With numerous Illustrations. Foolscap 410., 5s. 

DR. GILBERT'S DAUGHTERS. By Margaret Harriet Mathews. 

Illustrated by Chris. Hammond. Crown 8vo., cloth, 5s. 

THE REEF OF GOLD. By Maurice H. Hervey. With numerous 

full-page Illustrations, handsomely bound. Gilt edges, 5s. 

BAREROCK ; or, The Island of Pearls. By Henry Nash. With 
numerous Illustrations by Lancelot Speed. Large crown 8vo., handsomely bound, 
gilt edges, 5s. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



27 



THREE SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE EACH. 
TALES FROM HANS ANDERSEN. With nearly 40 Original Illus- 

trations by E. A. Lemann. Small 4to., handsomely bound in cloth, 3s. 6d. 

THE SNOW QUEEN, and other Tales. By Hans Christian 

Andersen. Beautifully illustrated by Miss E. A. Lemann. Small 4to., handsomely 
bound, 3s. 6d. 

UNTERS THREE. By Thomas W. Knox, Author of ^The Boy 

Travellers,' etc. With numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 

HE SECRET OF THE DESERT. By E. D. Fawcett. With 

numerous full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo. , cloth, 3s. 6d. 

JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. By Annie Fellows Johnston. 

With ten full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 

THE MUSHROOM CAVE. By Evelyn Raymond. With Illustrations. 

Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 

THE DOUBLE EMPEROR. By W. Laird Clowes, Author of ' The 

Great Peril,' etc. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. , 3s. 6d. 

SWALLOWED BY AN EARTHQUAKE. By E. D. Fawcett. Illus- 

trated. Crown 8vo. , 3s. 6d. 

HARTMANN THE ANARCHIST ; or, The Doom of the Great 

City. By E. Douglas Fawcett. With sixteen fall-page and numerous smaller 
Illustrations by F. T. Jane. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 

ANIMAL SKETCHES : a Popular Book of Natural History. By Pro- 
fessor C. Lloyd Morgan, F.G.S. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 



TWO SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE EACH. 
THE CHILDREN'S HOUR SERIES. (Seepage 15.) 
FRIENDS OF THE OLDEN TIME. By Alice Gardner, Lecturer 

in History at Newnham College, Cambridge. Second Edition. Illustrated. Square 
8vo., 2S. 6d. 



TWO SHILLINGS EACH, 



THE CHILDREN'S FAVOURITE SERIES. A Charming Series of 

Juvenile Books, each plentifully Illustrated, and written in simple language to please 
young readers. Handsomely bound, and designed to form an attractive and enter- 
taining series of gift-books for presents and prizes. The utmost care has been taken 
to maintain a thoroughly healthy tone throughout the Series, combined with enter- 
taining and interesting reading. P?'ice 2S. each; o}- gilt edges, 2.s. 6d. 



My Book of Wonders. 
My Book of Travel Stories. 
My Book of Adventures. 
My Book of the Sea. 
My Book of Fables. 
Deeds of Gold. 
My Book of Heroes. 



My Book of Perils. 
My Book of Fairy Tales. 
My Book of History Tales. 
My Story Book of Animals. 
Rhymes for You and Me. 
My Book of Great Inventions. 



28 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



PICTURES OF BRITISH WILD ANIMALS. For Decoration anc 

Object Lessons. An entirely new and beautiful Series of Pictures in Water-Colours 
specially painted by Mr. William Foster. 



The following is a list of the Series : 



1. Hare. 

2. Rabbit. Weasel. 

3. Rat. Mouse. Bat. 

4. Hedgehog. Snail. Slug. 
6. Otter. 

6. Dormouse and Adder. 



Spider. Worm. 



7. Deer. 

8. Snake and Mole. 

9. Bees. 

10. Water-rat. Frog. 

11. Squirrel. 

12. Fox. 



Toad. Newt. 



The size of each plate is about 15^ by loi inches. The plates are supphed singly at the 
following prices : Unmounted, gd. ; mounted on boards, with metal edges, 15^ by 21 inches; 
IS. 6d. net. ; framed and mounted (unglazed), 3s. net. 



PICTURES OF BRITISH FISHES. For Decoration and Object 

Lessons. This is an entirely new and very beautiful series, designed by Mr. Charles 
Whymper, the well-known artist. Great care has been exercised in selecting repre- 
sentative types of the fish that are found in the rivers and seas of the British Isles, and 
It is confidently believed that such accurate and faithful pictures of them have never 
hitherto been exhibited. 



11 



1. Herring. Sprat. 

2. Cod. 

3. Haddock. Mackerel. 



The following is a list of the Series : 



4. Plaice. Lobster. Crab. 

5. Salmon. Trout. 



6. Pike. Stickleback. Minnow, 

7. Eels. 

8. Bream. Percli. Roach. 



The size of each plate is about 15^ inches by loj. The plates are supplied singly at the 
toliowing prices: unmounted, gd. net; mounted on boards with metal edges, about i^i 
by 21 inches, is. 6d. net ; framed and mounted (unglazed), 3s. net. 



PICTURES OF BIRDS. For the Decoration of Home and Schools. 



List of Coloured Plates : 



Blue Tit. 

Tbrush. 

Cliaffincli. 



Bullfinch. 

Swallow. 

Yellowhammer. 



Skylark. 

Blackbird. 

Sparrow. 



Waterwagtail. 
Starling. 
Robin. 

6d. per Plate ; Set of 
12 by 15 inches, eye 



The Pictures can be supplied in the following styles : Unmounted 
12, in envelope. 6s. Mounted. Single Plates, mounted on boards, uy .u^nc:.. eye- 
letted and strung, is. each ; Sets of 3 Plates, mounted together on boards, 34 by is inches, 
eyeletted and strung, 2s. 6d. each. Framed, Single Plates, mounted and framed. 2s. each ; 
iiets of 3 Plates, mounted and framed together, 4s. 6d. each. 

All the above prices a? e net. 



WILD FLOWER PICTURES. For the Decoration of Home and 

School. Twenty-one Beautifully-coloured Plates, issued in the same style and at the 
same prices as the ' Birds.' 



Honeysuckle. 

Forget-me-Not. 

Convolvulus. 

Hawthorn. 

Lychnis. 

Harebell. 

Daisy. 



Poppy. 
Cornflower. 
Iris. 
Rose. 

Buttercup. 

Heather. 

Water-Lily. 



Foxglove. 

Cowslip. 

Bluebell. 

Primrose. 

Violet. 

Daffodil. 

Anemone. 



1 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



29 



THE INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES. 

THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD. By 

Gabriel Campayre. 

TEACHING THE LANGUAGE-ARTS. Speech, Reading, Composition. By B. A. 

Hinsdale, Ph.D., LL.D., University of Michigan. 4s. 6d. 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE NUMBER, AND ITS APPLICATION TO METHODS 

OF TEACHING ARITHMETIC. By James A. McLellan, A.M., and John Dewey, Ph.D. 6s. 

THE SONGS AND MUSIC OF FROEBEL'S MOTHER PLAY. By Susan E. Blow. 

6s. 

THE MOTTOES AND COMMENTARIES OF FROEBEL'S MOTHER PLAY. By 

Susan E. Blow and H. R. Eliot. 6s. 
HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH HISTORY. By B. A. Hinsdale, Ph.D., LL.D. 

6s. 

FROEBEL'S PEDAGOGICS OF THE KINDERGARTEN ; or, His Ideas concerning 

the Play and Playthings of the Child. Translated by J. Jarvis. Crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 

THE EDUCATION OF THE GREEK PEOPLE, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CIVILIZA- 
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SYSTEMATIC SCIENCE TEACHING. By Edward G. Howe. Crown 8vo., 

cloth, 6s. 

EVOLUTION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IN MASSACHUSETTS. By 

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THE INFANT MIND; or. Mental Development in the Child. Translated from 

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ENGLISH EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 

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EDUCATION FROM A NATIONAL STANDPOINT. Translated from the French of 
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THE MORAL INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. By Felix Adler, President 

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THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. By Johann Karl Rosenkranz, Doctor of 

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A HISTORY OF EDUCATION. By Professor F. V. N. Painter. 6s. 

THE VENTILATION AND WARMING OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS. With Plans and 

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FROEBEL'S < EDUCATION OF MAN.' Translated by W. N. Hailman. Crown 

8vo., 6s. 

ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION. By Dr. J. Baldwin. Illus- 
trated, crown 8vo., 6s. 

THE SENSES AND THE WILL. Forming Part I. of ' The Mind of the Child.' 
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTELLECT. Forming Part II. of *The Mind of 

the Child.' By Professor W. Preyer. (Translated.) Crown 8vo., 6s. 

HOW TO STUDY GEOGRAPHY. By Francis W. Parker. 6s. 

A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. By Richard A. 

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EUROPEAN SCHOOLS; or, What I Saw in the Schools of Germany, France, 
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PRACTICAL HINTS FOR TEACHERS. By George Rowland, Superintendent 

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SCHOOL SUPERVISION, By J. L. Pickard. 4s. 6d. 

HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. By Helene Lange. 4s. 6d. 
HERBART'S TEXT-BOOK IN PSYCHOLOGY. By M. K. Smith. 4s. 6d. 
PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO THE ART OF TEACHING. By Dr. J. Baldwin. 6s. 



^30 Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



PERIODICALS. 

THE NATIONAL REVIEW. 

Edited by L. J. MAXSE. 
Price Half a-crown monthly. 

i 

THE PHILOSOPHICAL REVIEW. 

Edited by J. G. SCHURMAN, 
Professor of Philosophy in Cornell University, U.S.A. 

Six Numbers a year. Single Numbers, 3s. 6d. ; Annual Subscription, 14s. post free, 
The first number was issued in January, 1892. 

The Review ranges over the whole field of Philosophy ; the articles are signed, and thd 
contributors include the names of the foremost philosophical teachers and writers oJ 
America, and many of those of England and the Continent of Europe. 



THE JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY : 

A Journal of Animal Morphology, devoted principally to Embryological, Anatomical, 

and Histological Subjects. 

Edited by C. O. WHITMAN, Professor of Biology in Clark University, U.S.A. 

Three numbers in a volume of 100 to 150 large 4to. pages, with numerous plates. Single 
numbers, 17s. 6d. ; subscription to the volume of three numbers, 45s. Volumes I. 
to X. can now be obtained, and the first two numbers of Volume XI. are ready. 



: 



PUBLICATIONS OF THE INDIA OFFICE AND OF 
THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 

Mr. Edward Arnold, having been appointed Publisher to the Secretary 
of State for India in Council, has now on sale the above publications 
at 37 Bedford Street, Strand, and is prepared to supply full information 
concerning them on application. 



INDIAN GOVERNMENT MAPS. 



Any of the Maps in this magnificent series can now be obtained at the 
shortest notice from Mr. Edward Arnold, Publisher to the India Office. 



Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 



31 



5nC)ej to autbors. 



DAMS. — The Palace on the Moor 
DDERLEY. — Stephen Remarx 
LDRICH.— Arctic Alaska 
fMERicAN Game Fishes 
NiMAL Pictures . 



PAGE 

• 15 

. 23 

. 18 

. 18 

. 28 



of 



ALFOUR.— Twelve Hundred Miles in a 

Waggon 

ELL, Mrs.— Kleines Haustheater . 
ELL (Rev. Canon).— Sermons 
,, Diana's Looking Glass . 
Poems Old and New 
ENSON.— Men of Might . 
liEYNON, — With Kelly to Chitral . 

liRD Pictures 

3LATCHFORD. —Tommy Atkins 
iOYLE. — Recollections of the Dean 
Salisbury ...... 

Srown. — Works on Poultry Keeping 
i^RYAN. — Mark in Europe 
iULL.— The Cruise of the 'Antarctic' 
^URBiDGE. — Wild Flowers in Art . 
Burgess.— Political Science . 
3UTLER. — ^^Select Essays of Sainte Beuve 



AWSTON. — The Early Chartered Com 

panies 

3HERBULIEZ. — The Tutor's Secret . 
Children's Favourite Series . 
Children's Hour Series 
Clifford. — Love-Letters 
Clouston. — Early English Furniture 
Clov^es.— Double Emperor . 
Collingwood. — Thorstein 

,, The Bondwoman . 

^^ollins. — A Treasury of Minor British 

Poetry 

ICoLViLE. — Land of the Nile Springs 
Cook. — Sidney's Defense of Poesy 
I Shelley's Defence of Poetry 

Cosmopolite. —Sportsman in Ireland 
Crane. — Georj;e*s Mother 
Cunningham. — Draughts Manual 
Custance. — Riding Recollections 

Davidson. — Handbook to Dante 
DUNMORE. — Ormisdal 



16 



17 
20 
20 
20 
20 
18 

17 

28 

23 

18 
24 
25 
9 
26 

25 
20 



9 

23 
-26 

15 
23 
8 

27 
21 

14 



17 
21 
21 

5 

14 
24 

17 

2E 

23 



PAGE 

Ellacombe. — In a Gloucestershire 
Garden 24 

Ellacombe.— The Plant Lore of Shake- 
speare ....... 7 

Fawcett. — Hartmann the Anarchist 
Fa wcett.— Riddle of the Universe 
Fawcett. — Secret of the Desert . 

,, Swallowed by an Earthquake 27 

Field,— Master Magnus. . . .15 

Fish Pictures 28 

Fleming.— Art of Reading and Speaking 21 
Ford.— On the Threshold . . .23 
Fowler.— Echoes of Old County Life . i8 
Freshfield.— Exploration of the Cau- 
casus 10 



-7 
25 
27 



Gardner.— Friends of Olden Time 
Garnett. — Selections in English Prose . 
Gaunt. — Dave's Sweetheart . 
Gordon.— Persia Revisited 
Goschen.— Cultivation and Use of the 

Imagination 

Gossip.— Chess Pocket Manual 

Great Public Schools . . 16, 

Gummere.— Old English Ballads . 



27 

21 
23 

9 

21 

24 
26 



Hadjira I. 

Hans Andersen 



Snow Queen . 
Tales from 
Hare. — Life and Letters of Maria Edge- 
worth 

Harrison. — Early Victorian Literature . 
Hartshorne.— Old English Glasses 
Hervey.— Eric the Archer 

Reef of Gold . . . . 
HiGGiNS. — New Guide to the Pacific 

Coast 

Hole. — Addresses to Working Men 
Hole. — Book about Roses 

Book about the Garden 
Little Tour in America 
Little Tour in Ireland 
Memories ..... 
More Memories .... 
Holt. — Fancy Dresses Described . 
HoPKlNSON.— Toby's Promise 



16 
16 

19 
21 
8 
26 
26 

18 
21 

7 
24 
17 

5 

19 
^9 
12 

15 



32 



Mr, Edward Arnold's List. 



PAGE 

of 

. 21 

. 22 

. 6 

. 22 



Hudson. — Life, Art, and Characters 
Shakespeare 
Harvard Shakespeare 
Hopkins. — Rehgions of India . . 
Hunt. — What is Poetry ? 
Hutchinson.— That Fiddler Fellow . 24 

India Office Publications. . . 30 
International Education Series . 29 

Johnston.— Joel ; a Boy of Galilee . 27 

Kay. — Omarah's Yaman . . . .19 
Kenney-Herbert. — Fifty Breakfasts . 24 
,, Fifty Dinners . 25 

Fifty Lunches . 12 
,, Common-sense 

Cookery 24 

Knight-Bruce. — Memories of Mashona- 

land 19 

Knox. — Hunters Three . . . .27 
Knutsford. — Mystery of the Rue Soly . 23 

Lang. — Lamb's Adventures of Ulysses . 22 
Lecky.— Political Value of History- . 19 
Le Fanu. — Seventy Years of Irish Life . 12 
Leffingv^ell. — Art of Wing-Shooting . 18 
Legh. — How Dick and Molly went round 

theWo-ld 26 

Legh.— How Dick and Molly saw Eng- 
land 15, 26 

Legh?— My Dog Plato . . . .15 
LoTZE.— Philosophical Outlines . . 25 

Mathews.— Dr. Gilbert's Daughters . 26 

Maud. — Wagner's Heroes . . .12 

,, Wagner's Heroines . . .12 
Maxwell. — The Sportsman's Library . 4 

McNulty.— Misther O'Ryan . . .23 

Milner. — England in Egypt . . .19 

Arnold Toynbee . . .19 

Montresor.— Worth While . . .13 

Morgan.— Animal Life . . . .25 

Animal Sketches . . .27 

,, Habit and Instinct. . . 6 

Psychology for Teachers . 25 

, , Springs of Conduct . . 25 

Morphology, Journal of . . .25 

Morrison. — Life's Prescription . . 22 

Munroe.— Fur Seal's Tooth . . .26 
Rick Dale . . .15, 26 
,, Snow-shoes and Sledges 15, 26 

Nash. — Barerock 26 

National Review . . . .30 



Oman. —History of England . 
Oxenden. — Interludes . 

Pearson.— The Chances of Death . 
Philosophical Review 
Pike.— Through the Sub-Arctic Forest 
PiLKiNGTON.— An Eton Playing-Field 
POLLOK. — Fifty Years' Reminiscences c 

India 

Pope. — Memoirs of Sir John Macdonald 
Portal. — British Mission to Uganda 

,, My Mission to Abyssinia 
Prescott.— A Mask and a Martyr . 
Pulitzer.— Romance of Prince Eugene 

Raleigh.— Robert Louis Stevenson 
Ransome.— Battles of Frederick the Grea 
Raymond. — Mushroom Cave . 
R ochefort. — The Adventures of My Lif 
Rodd. — Works by Rennell Rodd 

Santley. — Student and Singer 
Schelling. — Elizabethan Lyrics . 

Ben Jonson's Timber 
Shaw. — A Text Book of Nursing . 
Sherard. — Alphonse Daudet . 
Shields. — Camping and Camp Outfits 
Shields.— American Book of the Dog 
Shorland. — Cycling for Health and 

Pleasure 

Sichel— The Story of Two Salons . 
Slatin.— Fire and Sword in the Sudan 
Smith. — The Life of a fox 

Through Unknown African 

Countries . . . . 
Spinner.— A Reluctant Evangelist . 
Stone.— In and Beyond the Himalayas 

Tatham. — Men of Might 
Thayer. — Best Ehzabethan Plays . 
Thomas.— Sweden and the Swedes . 
Thornton.— A Sporting Tour . I 
TOLLEMACHE. — Benjamin Jowett . 
Twining. — Recollections of Life ar 
Work 

White. — Pleasurable Bee-Keeping. 
Wild Flowers in Art and Natui- 
Wild Flower Pictures 
Williams. —The Bayonet that ce /i 

Home 

Winchester CoLi -^GE . . . 

Young. — General Astronomy . 






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